For The Rest Of Time
by Pr0fessi0nal-Fangurl
Summary: What if one night Oliver and Felicity meet at Verdant and after a night of dancing they go their separate ways? Then the next day in a twist of fate Oliver sees Felicity and he somehow convinces a reluctant Felicity to go out on a date with him. After a drunken night their lives change forever.
1. Chapter 1

Felicity was ahead of the game most of her life, she was always ahead in her schoolwork. Exceeding everyone in her classes most of the time skipping ahead and skipping grades like it was a piece of cake. However, graduating high school at 17 and graduating MIT at 19 put her very behind in the social aspect of her life. It's not like she didn't have a social life don't get her wrong. However, it was always hard for her to make friends when she was always so much younger than all of them. She tended to just be shunned from most social groups, most of them thinking that she was weird and they all outcasted her.

Which is how she found herself alone in Starling City at the ripe young age of 21, never having been in any really serious relationship and in a brand new city. She needed a fresh start, in a place where no one knew her. Surrounded by her peers and hopefully in a job where people respected her. The relationship thing, however, was a completely separate story. There was one guy while she was in college but it only lasted three months and he was just using her for her brains so that he could hack into government agencies for shits and giggles with her help.

She got an offer from Palmer Technologies right out of MIT, an offer that she couldn't stand to refuse, assistant director of the applied sciences division. A stepping stone to her dream job, which is to be the director of the applied sciences division. The CEO of Palmer Tech, Ray Palmer, had known a professor of hers and heard about her through the grapevine and had to scoop her up before anyone else did. He did that by offering her something that no one ever would, he took a chance on her. In no time she was showing everyone up. Which ironically didn't help her much in the friends or social life department, most of the people thought that she was too young to be assistant director and had to be sleeping with Ray Palmer in order to even get the job.

This is how her only friend became her doorman, John Diggle. An ex-army lieutenant and the man who knew her better than anyone else, at first glance the man is very scary and intimidating but, once you get to know him, he is a giant softie. She tended to hang out with him on her nights off mainly just because she didn't have anyone else and he knew that, which was why he let her hang out with him. He needed some company anyways on the long boring nights of basically doing nothing but opening the door for rich people.

After a few months of living in the building and Felicity always hanging out with him, he had enough, it was just getting sad and pathetic. She needed a push in the right direction and he was going to do that for her. He cared about her enough to want to see her succeed and see her make friends that weren't people that worked in her building.

"Alright enough is enough, you have lived here for four years and all you ever seem to do on your nights off are either hang down in the lobby of this building or hole yourself up in your apartment working on...whatever it is you are working on. Felicity, you need to get out, have some semblance of a life besides talking to me. When you first moved here you would go out all of the time and now you barely leave," Dig practically begs her, wanting to see her do nothing but succeed in life and in order to fully thrive she was going to have to go out and meet some new people.

"I have a life, thank you very much. I have friends besides you, ya know." Felicity tries and fails to prove a point, John being able to see right through her blatant lie.

He crosses his arms across his chest leaning back in his chair and raising an eyebrow at her. "Oh really? Who might these friends be? I don't ever remember you mentioning anyone in any of your stories from work or anywhere else," Dig retorts, knowing that he has won this when Felicity sighs and throws her hands up already conceding.

"Alright fine, so maybe I don't have any friends besides you, what's so wrong with that?! It's not like you're a serial killer or a drug dealer, there are worse friends I could have," Felicity says, countering back making a decent point but not a decent enough one to dissuade John from giving up this crusade of getting her out there and meeting new people.

"That may be true but most people aren't best friends with their doorman. Generally, the only thing people do is say hi to me and smile before walking away, not stay down here for hours on end talking to me. Most people also tend to actually leave the building every once in a while," Dig jokes, causing Felicity to narrow her eyes at him and scowl.

"Hardy har har, have your jokes. They don't bother me," Felicity says, looking away from him and out the front door out into the street in front of them. The jokes did bother her because she knew that there was a truth to them. He was right she never left the building, she was still the same socially anxious girl that she was back in high school.

"All that I am saying is that you should try and get out there, meet some new people. Make some new friends. You are always saying that your mom is constantly complaining about how you're terminally single. Maybe you get out there and try and meet someone to get her off of your back for a while," Dig said.

Felicity nods her head knowing that Dig has made an excellent point in this argument, going out would get her mother off her back. Plus she could actually meet some new people, people that she actually might like and enjoy spending time with. She, however, doesn't like the fact that he used her mother against her like that, she resented that.

"Okay fine, maybe you're right, savor this moment because those words are never coming out of my mouth again," Felicity said, making John chuckle but nod nonetheless. "I'll give this whole socializing thing a try, a few people from work have been asking me to go out with them the past few nights after work."

"Why haven't you gone?"John asks.

Felicity shrugs her shoulders and starts to pick at her nails out of a nervous habit not wanting to look John in the eye. She knows that once she does that she will spill the beans and tell him everything and she is going to sound extremely dumb once she tells him how she feels.

John sits there waiting for her to look at him and tell him what's going on. He has to sit here all night anyway so he doesn't mind the company.

Felicity finally sighs after a few minutes and fesses up to her insecurities, no matter how dumb she thinks she sounds she knows that John would never judge her. "I'm scared that they are just asking me out to drinks out of some kind of obligation. They ask me to go just because they don't want to seem rude and really on the inside, they are praying that I say no because they really don't want me to go out with them."

John stares at her incredulously wondering how she could ever possibly think that. He knows that it probably has to do with the fact that she never had a lot of friends growing up. That she was always surrounded by people that were older than her and that made fun of her for being smart and ambitious. It also doesn't help that she got hired into a big-time tech company at the age of 20 as assistant director of applied sciences. It caused a lot of people to make assumptions about her and that was never fair, John knew that it weighed heavily on her heart. That she was always bothered by all of the rumors and the gossip, no matter how much she said that it never bothered her.

"Felicity, I know that you don't actually believe that. You don't let a lot of people in and yes that may very well be a good way to keep your heart safe, but it makes for a very lonely life if you ask me. They are probably asking you because they want to get to know you outside of work."

John always makes good points whenever they seem to talk and it annoys her to no end that he's so good at giving advice. Sometimes she feels like she just has to follow it because it makes so much sense.

"I hate that you make so much sense, it's very annoying and makes it very hard for me to stay mad at you about anything." Felicity huffs making John laugh and shake his head, Felicity always knows how to keep a smile on his face. Which these days is harder to do than most would think.

"Just the next time that your friends ask you to go out for drinks after work don't say no, you have to get out eventually. You can't always sit here and hang out with me every night, I actually have a job to do ya know." John joked and Felicity stuck her tongue out at him making him laugh again.

"Alright alright, next time they ask I'll say yes, mainly just to get you off of my back," Felicity says giving him a smile and finally saying goodnight to him.

Felicity made her way upstairs to her apartment knowing that John was correct, that she did need to get out more and meet new people. She needs to get over this insane fear that everyone is talking behind her back and hates her, she knows that her team at work who ask her to go out is a genuine group of people. That they wouldn't be inviting her out unless they actually wanted to be around her but old habits die hard and she always says no out of fear of being rejected.

The next day at work she puts everything to the back of her mind as her and her team work diligently on this new project, she quickly forgets about everything and solely focuses on the project at hand. She is so lost in her work that it takes her coworker Curtis tapping her on the shoulder to tell her that they are all going out for drinks and asked her if she wanted to come with them.

She looks at him and then to the others Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry and nods telling them to give her a few minutes and she will meet them by the elevators. She was actually going to do this, go out for drinks after work and actually have some semblance of a social life. Felicity shuts her work station down saving her work and grabs her coat and bag and meets them all by the elevators just like she said. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't surprised that they were still waiting there for her.

"Are my eyes deceiving me or is Felicity Smoak actually going out with us for drinks?" Caitlin jokes making all of them including Felicity laugh.

"Your eyes are not deceiving you, I just need to get out more and actually do something besides work. You guys are actually nice and are the only people who don't talk about me behind my back." Felicity comments and Barry scuffs.

"Forget about them, they are just jealous because you are a hell of a lot better than any of them at their job," Barry says making Felicity smile and feel better about being able to actually to trust these guys.

"Thanks. So where are we going because after the week we have had I could really use a stiff drink." Felicity says making them all laugh as they got into one of the elevators and head down into the lobby.

"We were thinking about Verdant, it's a pretty nice club plus it helps that there are always cute guys willing to pay for our drinks," Caitlin says looking to Curtis making Felicity laugh as they all walk out of the elevator.

"Yeah, that is always a good reason to go to a club, all throughout college I don't think I ever paid for one drink when I went clubbing. Which was disappointing because I made a very convincing fake and I hardly ever got to use it." Felicity said and laughed, all four of the others looked to her surprised by the words coming out of her mouth. They never would have guessed that she was a party girl in college.

"You partied in college?" Cisco asked in a little disbelief and Felicity laughed and nodded, she often forgot that everyone saw her as the innocent one when she was actually very far from it. She just comes off that way because of her hair color and the way that she dresses.

"Oh yeah, I partied hard in college mainly because I was so young and I wanted to show everyone that I could handle my liquor...and drugs," Felicity said and looked around at the group in front of her and saw all of the shocked looks on their faces and it gave her some sort of satisfaction that she shocked them in some way.

"Well now I am even more pumped that you're coming with us, I wanna see crazy party Felicity in action," Cisco says as they get to the parking garage and they all conveniently stopped at her parking spot where her tiny car is sitting.

Felicity chuckles and puts her work bag into the back seat leaving her with just her purse. She takes her hair out of her ponytail and shakes it out and they all stare at her like she's a fish out of water. She suddenly went from work and professional Felicity to someone who was ready for a night out.

"Party Felicity hasn't spread her wings in three years so I can guarantee that you can out drink her," Felicity says throwing her purse over her shoulder and rejoins the group at the back of her car.

"Oh, I will totally get in on that bet," Barry says as they make their way to his car because he was the only one that could fit them all.

"I'll take that bet too," Caitlin says and Felicity laughs already extremely glad that she decided to come out with them tonight, she can already tell that she was going to get along with all of them really well.

"Well let's not take bets, at that rate I will end up drunk within a few minutes of walking into the club. I used to be able to take five shots and barely feel it." Felicity comments as they get into the car and take off in the direction of the club.

"I'm impressed but also not surprised entirely us nerds tend to be able to really party when given the opportunity." Curtis points out and the whole group laughs.

"Curtis you get drunk off of one martini," Cisco says making the group laugh and Curtis blush.

"Well I don't drink a lot so when I do my limit is extremely low," Curtis says.

"And there is nothing wrong with that," Caitlin respond trying to make Curtis feel a bit better.

"I drank so much in college half to impress people but have because I was taking such accelerated classes and everything was moving so fast that I needed something to do to wind down and partying just so happened to be that thing for me." Felicity offered up and the rest of the group nodded in understanding.

They pulled up to the club and Felicity could practically feel the ground pulsating from the music playing inside and it brought her back to her days in college and she instantly became excited to go inside and start dancing and letting all of her stress fall off her body.

They stood in line only for an hour before they were let in, the group luckily found a booth and sat down. Felicity ordering a round of shots for everyone to start the night off, if she was going to go out to a club on a Thursday night then she was going to go big or go home.

"To letting loose and making new friends," Felicity says and they all cheer before throwing back their shots and ordering another round making Curtis's eye's go wide at the thought of doing shot after shot.

After three shots, it didn't take much convincing from Caitlin to get Felicity out onto the dance floor. The smile on Felicity's face never fell once as she jumped and danced to the beat of the music. She hadn't felt this good and loose since college and she started to wonder whatever stopped her from just going out every once in a while and just having fun.

* * *

Oliver had been running verdant for three years now and he absolutely loved it, his parents, on the other hand, thought that it was a wasted business venture. They were always telling him how he was wasting his time and he might as well just start learning what it was like to run QC considering one day in the future it would be his to run anyways.

Oliver always had to roll his eyes whenever his parents even mentioned the club, it was making a pretty hefty profit and, yes it may have kept him in the club scene, but at least he had stopped peeing on cop cars and punching out paparazzi.

Oliver walked out of his office and out onto the balcony looking out over the entire club just watching the group of people move to the beat of the music, this had become a new hobby for him. He loved to take breaks from shipment orders and paperwork, throughout the night and just watch the crowd, he loved to see everyone having a good time and sometimes even find a girl to take home for the night. This seemed to be happening less and less recently but he wasn't exactly complaining, Tommy however was.

Then Oliver spotted a woman who he would call the most beautiful woman he had seen, he laughed at himself at how cliche he sounded. If anyone could listen in on his thoughts right now they would probably comment that Oliver Queen was going soft. He watched on as the blonde woman danced and jumped around with her friend a smile never seems to leave her face which makes Oliver smile as well.

She and her friend left the dance floor and Oliver saw that as his chance to make a move, he made his way down the stairs that lead out onto the dance floor and made his way over to the booth that held her and her friends. Before making it there he noticed three guys sitting with them and silently wondered if one of them was her boyfriend, he figured that it was worth a shot and who could it really hurt if he just went over there and started talking to her. He could end up getting punched by one of those guys if she ended up having a boyfriend but there are worse things that could happen. Besides it didn't look like any of them could really throw a good enough punch to do any real damage.

He made his way over there and he could tell when they all noticed because they all had bug-eyed expressions on their faces except for the blonde, which intrigued him even more. If she didn't know who he was this would be a rare encounter where people didn't automatically judge him for his past transgressions.

"Hi, hows everyone's evening going tonight?" Oliver asks eyeing the blonde, he notices her smoky blue eyes and can't seem to tear his own stare away from hers, she raises an eyebrow in competition. He smiles and finally looks away from her to the rest of the group before looking back at her.

"Great, even better now that you're here." Felicity slips out, she didn't think that she was too drunk until that slipped right out of her mouth. She closed her eyes as Caitlin giggled, she knew that she needed to cut back on the drinks but it was so tempting taking shot after shot. She forgot that she was well past her limit a few shots ago.

Felicity opens her eyes knowing that she is blushing like crazy but there is no way that he can tell in this darkly lit night club. She opened her eyes to see him standing there and smiling down at her as coy as ever and all Felicity wanted to do was jump his bones. She starred into his stormy blue eyes hardly being able to look away from him. She knew exactly who he was, this was Oliver Queen, he was the owner of this night club but also playboy of Starling City. However, she wasn't going to let him know that she actually knew who he was, guys like this tended to live off of that kind of attention.

"Can I get you guys another round of drinks?" He asks looking around and Caitlin immediately answers for all of them without a second thought.

"Oh yes please." She smiles and stares at Oliver as he nods as walks over to the bar ordering all of them another round.

"Felicity he was totally checking you out, ask him to dance," Caitlin says staring at him and admiring the view that she was getting.

Felicity snorted and looked over at Oliver not being able to tear her eyes away either, she had to admit that he was very attractive. It was hard not to stare at him when he looked like a Greek God and leaning against the bar like he was making his ass look amazing.

"There is no way that he was checking me out, he is a Greek God and I'm like...a peasant," Felicity says letting her insecurities eat away at her.

"Oh he was 100% checking you out, I saw him walk all of way over here and he was only looking at you the whole time," Barry commented.

"Never in a million years would I have thought I would have succumbed to peer pressure," Felicity said knowing very well that there wasn't any sort of peer pressure situation going on. She really wanted to believe what they were saying and she was going to let her drunk self have what it wants.

Oliver started to walk back over to them with another round of their drinks and let everyone pick up which drink was theirs before he even got out the opportunity Felicity opened her mouth and let the alcohol do the talking for her. "You wanna dance?"

Oliver looked at her for a few short moments before nodding his head and holding out his hand to help her up. Felicity took it with ease and let him escort her out onto the dance floor. She made a quick look to Caitlin like I can't actually believe that this is happening right now, I am about to dance with Oliver Queen.

They make their way out into the middle of the dance floor and between the adrenaline and the alcohol Felicity had absolutely no guard up whatsoever and didn't even think before she acted. Oliver took her lead never wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, he set his hands on her hips and smiled down at her as the two of them seemed to meld together and move to the music as one.

Felicity had to admit that it felt damn good to just let loose and not think about being responsible or think about work and projects, it felt amazing to act her age. It also helped that Oliver was extremely easy on the eyes, Felicity let her hands roam over his back taking advantage of the close proximity of the two of them.

Oliver didn't mind at all considering he couldn't take his eyes or his hands off of her, he admired the way that her hips seemed to move in perfect rhythm with his and to the music. He also loved the little smile that he saw on her face as she danced and just let the movement take over her body. It was definitely a mesmerizing experience, something he was truly never going to forget, hell he hasn't even gotten her name and with the little talking that they are doing, he doubts that he ever will get her name.

Felicity opens her eyes to find Oliver staring right down into her eyes, it feels like he is looking directly into her soul, but Felicity couldn't seem to look away. So she did the only thing that she could think of to do, kiss him. Without a second thought, she leaped forward, taking both of her hands and framing his face bringing him down to her level.

He was shocked at first to say the very least but then he went with it, it's not like he wasn't thinking about doing the exact same thing. She just thought of it first and executed it first, which he found very sexy and appealing.

They spent the better part of an hour making out on the dance floor and barely dancing, really just moving to the music but neither of them seemed to mind. Finally, they pulled away from each other with giant smiles on their faces as they both laughed and made their way off of the dance floor and back to Felicity's friends.

"Hey we are just about ready to leave, you ready?" Cisco asks and Felicity nods and grabs her stuff from the booth before turning back to Oliver the smile still not having left her face from what just happened on the dance floor. She moved closer so that she could properly speak to him without having to scream.

"Thanks for the dance and...well everything else because I mean...wow, that was. I don't even think I have proper words to describe how great and amazing that kiss was." Felicity let herself ramble not even caring because she was still rolling from all the alcohol and that amazing kiss.

"Oh, it was my pleasure," Oliver comments still a bit taken aback by her brazenness but also from that kiss as well, he has kissed many women in his days as America's biggest playboy but nothing could ever compete with what just transpired on that dance floor.

"So could I maybe get your number?" Oliver asked and for the first time, while talking to a girl he was actually nervous, he was taking a chance hoping that she would say yes.

Felicity sat there for a few moments starring at him not sure what to say, she wanted to give him her number but on the other hand, this was her first night going out and she kind of enjoyed not having to worry about anyone else. "Look I had a really really great time but I am going to have to say no, I'm sure that you're a perfectly nice guy…"

Oliver smiled sheepishly and tried to just let it roll off of him like it didn't matter that he just got rejected. "Yeah okay I understand, can I at least get your name?"

Felicity smiles as she sees Caitlin motion to meet them outside and she nods to Caitlin before looking back up to Oliver and smiling at him. "Felicity. Felicity Smoak."

With that, she gives him a quick kiss on the cheek before practically running out the door making a mental note for herself that she is probably the first person to ever turn down Oliver Queen.


	2. Chapter 2

Felicity woke up the next morning with a killer hangover, she tried to open her eyes but even that was a struggle. She slammed her hand down onto her phone in the hopes to get it to shut up, she groaned but instantly regretted it as it made her head feel even worse. She covered her face with her hands and her eyes started to water from the pain in her head, she now remembers the reasons why she quit drinking and partying, the morning after was always awful.

"Why does having fun have to have so many consequences?" She asks herself laying in bed with her eyes closed trying to find the energy and motivation to get out of bed that didn't make her throw up.

Felicity slowly got out of bed and sat there for a few moments breathing deeply as her stomach rumbled, she closed her eyes and told herself over and over that she was not going to throw up. She opened her eyes and sat there for a few moments before she got up and walked over to her closet happy that it was casual Friday at work which meant that she could throw on some jeans and an old t-shirt and throw her hair up in a messy bun and call it good. She kept her eyes closed most of the time while getting dressed because even though the sun was barely up the light was still really bothering her.

She walked into her kitchen and got everything out to make her hangover cure but then realized that it required her to use her blender and she was not ready to turn on that horribly loud kitchen appliance this early in the morning. She sighed and got her phone and purse while starting to look for her work bag before remembering that she left it in her car that was also still at Palmer Tech.

"The world is out to get me this morning, actually more like drunk Felicity is out to get me this morning." She sighed and grabbed her coat and made her way out of her apartment putting her sunglasses on even though she was still in the building.

She stepped into the elevator and tried for the life of her to remember exactly what happened last night and also how she got home. She remembered doing at the least five shots and dancing with Caitlin but then that was where the night became really fuzzy. She remembered some guy coming up to the booth and she asking him to dance and but his face was extremely blurry. She also remembered making out with him and she most definitely remembered that he was an amazing kisser, so amazing that she vaguely remembers also having a dream involving both of them doing lots of things that makes her blush the color of a lobster.

The elevator opened and she saw Dig sitting there at the security desk, she stepped out of the elevator and stopped just looking at him not wanting to deal with his comments even if they were lighthearted. She took another deep breath and started to walk towards the doors hoping he wouldn't see her but she knew that he would see her. She was almost free when he decided to speak up.

"Good morning Ms. Smoak, did you have a good night last night?" Dig asked with a coy smile on his face knowing for a fact that she did have a good night considering she came home barely being able to walk to the elevator without falling over.

Felicity stopped and stared out the front door for a moment not knowing whether to be sassy and snarky with him or play it off like last night was just a normal night. She slowly turned towards him nervous that if she didn't then her stomach would work against her and she would throw up all over him. But if he was working last night then that meant that he could at least answer her question about how she got home last night.

"It was definitely eventful that's for sure," Felicity said as quietly as she could so that Dig could still hear and understand her. She really needed some greasy food and coffee in her system in order to be functional, good thing she was the boss and she could just text them all that she was going to be late.

"You know when I told you to go out for drinks with your coworkers I didn't mean for you to go and get that drunk, you could barely walk to the elevator last night," Dig said leaning back in his chair with a smug smile on his face.

Felicity glared at him and narrowed her eyes trying to seem menacing but Dig just laughed at her attempt and shook his head. Felicity rolled her eyes and sighed, "I didn't intend on getting as drunk as I did, I guess I'm not in college anymore and can't party all night long and then go to an 8 AM and be perfectly fine within a few hours. Since you were obviously working last night do you know how I got home?"

Dig chuckled as he remembered her stumbling out of a cab that had two others in it and they were also very drunk themselves, he nodded and he could see the relief spread onto Felicity's face behind her sunglasses. "You took a cab with two guys who I assume were your coworkers, you all were yelling about something but because you were all slurring your words I couldn't actually tell what you were saying to each other."

Felicity nodded with a small smile on her face, she didn't remember that at all but she was glad that she didn't get into a car with Barry behind the wheel. She knew even drunk Felicity wasn't that stupid, even though most times her drunk self makes very stupid decisions. "Well, I'm extremely grateful that I took a cab home, even my drunk self isn't that stupid. I know that I'm not that dumb but when you can't remember what happened the night before you can't help but become worried."

Dig chuckled but nodded as if he knew the feeling that she was having at the moment, he sat up and reached for something on his desk that she couldn't see from where she was standing. "Seeing as I knew that you would be hungover I brought you something knowing that you weren't going to make yourself breakfast."

Diggle passed her a bag from her favorite diner that he knew had her favorite breakfast burrito and a smoothie, her mouth started watering from the thought of eating and she couldn't tell if she was nauseous or just that hungry. She took the smoothie and breakfast burrito with a giant smile on her face, she had the best friend in the world.

"John Diggle you truly are my knight in shining armor." Felicity smiled as she took a sip of the smoothie feeling slightly better for giving her body some nutrients.

"I'm sure that Lyla will fight you on that." Dig commented laughing at Felicity as she took a huge bite of the burrito and barely swallowing before starting to talk.

"No thank you, your wife may be one of the nicest people I know but that woman could probably kill me with her bare hands," Felicity said as she thought back to the time that Lyla tried to teach her self defense but instead just repeatedly kept taking her down. She had bruises for months from that encounter.

"I won't fight you on that, you better get going though if you are going to walk those 15 blocks to work." Dig commented with another chuckle that made Felicity want to punch him.

"Have your laugh it's fine, but at least I went out and had a good night, no matter how awful I feel," Felicity said as she made her way outside and winced at the noise and the bright sun and started her walk into work, the only thing that she regretted about last night is not bringing her car home before going out last night. All of the noises from the construction being done and the early morning sun was really killing her.

She made her way to work slowly but surely and showed up only a half an hour late. She got onto the elevator and fell back against the back wall and closed her eyes as she took giant gulps of breath. She was starting to regret scarfing down that burrito. She walked out of the elevator and onto her floor and into her and her team's office and workspace for this project and saw that everyone besides Curtis looked just as dead as she did. All of them probably nursing hangovers as massive as hers.

"Felicity finally you're here! We need your help with something." Curtis practically yells and Felicity winces holding up her free hand to stop him from coming any closer to her with his perky enthusiasm and loud voice.

"One, please stop yelling, my head actually might explode after having to walk 15 blocks to work listening to constant construction. Two, how in the hell are you _not hungover right now?_" Felicity asked walking over to her desk and silently sitting down remembering that all of her work stuff was still downstairs in her car. She laid her head back on the headrest, the headache wasn't as bad as it was when she first woke up but it was still a nuisance. She let out a mental cry that she had to go back down to the parking garage in order to get any of the things that she would need in order to get anything done today.

"Curtis has a superpower and its the fact that he _never gets a hangover no matter how much alcohol he drinks,_" Barry says menacingly which makes Felicity laugh, Barry looks worse off than she was at the moment.

"That's true, I have a really high metabolism and that means that my body burns through alcohol really fast," Curtis says a smile on his face and Felicity hated him from afar for being in such a good mood.

"Curtis we all know how a high metabolism works," Caitlin says seeming just as bitter as the rest of them about Curtis being in a good mood as she starts working on the chemistry behind the project that they are working on.

"So it seems that party Felicity came out last night, you seemed to have a really good time last night. I think I can speak for all of us that we are glad that you came out with us." Barry says as he also seems to kickstart himself into actually getting work done this morning.

"Yeah I meant to text you when I got up this morning but I barely had the mental capacity to focus on actually getting ready this morning. How are you doing?" Caitlin asked as she stopped what she was doing and looked toward Felicity. Felicity turned in her chair not having to energy to turn her head just yet as she notices that all of them were starring at her apprehensively.

"I'm the same as you guys, currently nursing a hangover from hell but besides that, I can't complain," Felicity says knowing by the look on Caitlin's face that she wasn't asking how she was physically. There was information that she was missing, she looked around at the group trying to see if she could read it on any of their faces but that didn't work in her favor.

"What am I missing?" Felicity asks finally stirring up the energy to sit up.

"Oh shit, she hasn't seen it yet?" Cisco remarks looking around at the rest of the group.

"Seen what?" Felicity asks leaning forward onto her desk with a stern tone in her voice looking out at the group nervous about the answer that she is about to get.

The group looks at each other seeming to be having a silent conversation about who was going to tell Felicity what was going on. It seemed that Caitlin lost the battle because she was the one that finally looked at Felicity and started to explain what had them all in a frenzy.

"How much of last night do you remember?" Caitlin starts off and Felicity's face immediately goes pale at the thoughts that are running through her head that she could have done last night while being probably the drunkest she had been since her best partying days in college.

"I remember taking a lot of shots and then we danced but that's where it gets fuzzy. I remember some guy bought us all a round of drinks and then I danced with him for the rest of the night." Felicity leaving out the part of the steaming make-out session between her and the mystery man.

"Oh, you were doing a hell of a lot more than dancing with him." Cisco tries to say under his breath but instead, the entire room hears his comment making Felicity blush and look away from all of them. Until she realizes that he knows what happened between them and then she becomes curious about how he could possibly know.

"Wait...how do _you_ know that?" Felicity asks looking at him.

Caitlin gets up and hands Felicity her phone and then Felicity sees how they all know what happened, it was in all of the tabloids which were nice enough to provide her mystery man's name.

_**Oliver Queen with a new mystery woman?**_

Felicity's eyes bug out of her skull as everything comes back to her, she could kill her drunk self right now for doing this to her sober self. She quickly reads the article seeing that because of the angle they couldn't figure out who she was and she was incredibly grateful, silently hoping that this group would be the only people who actually knew.

"Well now at least I know who it was that I was making out with last night, I have tried to rack my brain to try and at the very least remember what he looked like but I couldn't," Felicity says as she hands Caitlin back her phone. "This is the exact reason drunk Felicity doesn't ever come out, she does stuff like this and gets sober Felicity into more trouble than I want to deal with."

Felicity sighed as her head fell into her hands that were resting on her desk as her headache seemed to get worse from the sheer magnitude of the stress that this is causing her. The tabloids didn't have her name, yet. She knew that eventually, they would because it was only a matter of time before _someone _put two and two together. Felicity's name and face have been in the news recently with all of the work they are doing at Palmer Tech.

"I don't know I think that party Felicity is really fun," Cailtin says trying to lighten the mood but Felicity just looks up at her with such a glare that she would have lit the ground that Caitlin was standing on fire.

"You wouldn't think the same thing if this was you," Felicity said wishing that the Earth would swallow her up whole.

"Now I am going to go down to my car and get all of my work stuff and by the time I get back up here we are all going to have forgotten what we just saw and get to work," Felicity said as she stood up ignoring the aching in her limbs from the mix of dancing and walking to work. She walked to the doors that lead to the stairs just needing to move in hopes to work out all of this nervous energy. She only made it down 20 flights before she gave up and took the elevator the rest of the way down to the garage.

She leaned back against the wall of the elevator and closed her eyes trying to make herself wake up from this embarrassing nightmare. She didn't regret what she did last night at all, in fact, it was a lot of fun to just let everything go and just, be. It was just the fact that it all happened with Oliver Queen of all people, once she found out who her mystery man was everything from the night before came back. She remembered Oliver coming up to the table and buying them drinks and her playing coy like she didn't know who he was. She remembered turning him down and being sad that she did because that probably would have been a pretty mind-blowing night if all of the rumors about him were true.

The elevator stopped at the garage and she walked to her car getting everything out that she would need for this day. Normally Fridays were her favorite day's but today all that she wanted to do was crawl onto her couch and watch reruns of Game of Thrones while she stuffed her face with Big Belly Burger and mint chip.

She got back into the elevator when she got a call from her mother and she knew instantly that it was regarding what she had just found out herself about her night out. She stared at it for two rings wondering slightly if she could just tell her mom that she is at work and can't talk but she knows that she can't get away that easily.

"Hey, mom," Felicity says knowing that she sounds beaten down and exhausted.

"How come I have to figure out from a tabloid that you are _dating Oliver Queen the billionaire?_" Donna practically shrieks and Felicity sighs knowing that this was not going to do anything but make her headache worse. She pinches the bridge of her nose in hopes to ease the migraine that's becoming ten times worse.

"That's because I am not dating Oliver Queen mom, it was just one night. Some coworkers and I went out last night to his club and we...danced." Felicity knew that her mom had seen the picture but there was no way in hell that she was admitting to her mom outright that she was making out with Oliver Queen in the middle of a club.

"Honey, it looked like you were doing a lot more than just dancing," Donna commented making Felicity groan as the doors to the elevator open and she takes a step into the lobby of her floor.

"Mom, please I really don't want to talk about this right now. I just found out myself what happened last night and I am having a hell of a time coping with this." Felicity practically begs as she leans against the wall outside of her team's office door waiting to be done talking about this. She was desperate to get back into that room and forget that any of this was actually happening.

"Alright honey. I just wanted to call and check in on you after seeing that, just remember to be safe and use protection." Donna said making Felicity physically cringe.

"_Mom!_ Can we please refrain, I don't need the sex talk for a second time. One time was scarring enough." Felicity said sighing hoping to get this conversation over with, she loved her mom but sometimes she was just too much to handle.

"Alright. I'm going my break is almost over anyway. I love you." Donna said and Felicity smiles, sometimes just talking to her mom and have her say embarrassing things to her is such a comfort that she didn't know that she needed.

"I love you too mom, I'll talk to you later," Felicity said as she hung up and walked into the office with a tiny smile on her face. Her mom somehow managed to distract her enough that things felt lighter to her like she could handle things.

After the little incident in the morning, everyone pretended as if nothing happened and they went on to make a major breakthrough in their project. They were working on a particular project that might actually help people who have been paralyzed walk again. They finally figured out how to keep the thing powered once it's inserted into the patient's spine, they all left the office that night feeling lighter; like they were on the cusp of something great.

"Since we made a major breakthrough today and it is, in fact, the weekend anyone wanna go out? To celebrate of course." Barry offered and the group looked apprehensive but it was Felicity that spoke first.

"I'm willing as long as it doesn't involve loads of alcohol because I really don't want to spend all of tomorrow in bed from a raging hangover," Felicity commented making them all laugh, they all nodded and agreed that maybe they deserved to just go and grab a bite to eat after their development on the project. They chose to all drive there separately just so it was easier for everyone.

They decide on Big Belly Burger because it's close and cheap and probably one of the most enjoyable unhealthy meals that they could eat. They sat down in a booth close to the door and Felicity just so happened to be the unlucky one that chose to sit in a chair at the end of the booth. Their waitress took their order and then left them alone but it hadn't even been a few minutes before a stranger walked up to Felicity.

"Well if it isn't my mystery woman." Felicity pales and stops, frozen in place at the sound of his voice and his comment knowing _exactly _who was standing to her left.

The group all look between Oliver and Felicity wondering what could possibly happen next between the pair. Felicity had spent the better part of the day avoiding talking or even thinking about last night or Oliver. Which proved hard because once you tell yourself you can't think about something or someone that's all that you end up thinking about.

Felicity turns to see Oliver standing next to her dressed in jeans and a grey henley and she couldn't deny that he looked absolutely delectable. She tried her hardest not to let her eyes run over his body but apparently, her sober self also can't deny this tall gorgeous man. He gives her a smile as if he can read exactly what she is thinking and it makes her blush at all of the dirty thoughts that are running through her head.

"Fancy seeing you here Felicity." Oliver smiled and she was still stuck not knowing what to say, her drunk self was always very outgoing but her sober self really didn't know how to talk to gorgeous men that are also practically famous.

Caitlin pinched her thigh under the table and she jumped silently thanking her for bringing her back to the present. "Are you stalking me or something? Just couldn't get enough last night at the club?" Despite her being slightly taken off guard and skittish she is doing a pretty decent job at hiding what she is really feeling.

"I would like to point out that you are the one in the glades just three blocks away from my club, so the real question is are _you_ stalking _me?_" Oliver asks a smug grin on her face causing Felicity to narrow her eyes at him at his snarky remark.

The rest of the group watch them as if this was the most interesting thing that they had seen all day. Caitlin is the first to speak up out of the group, "Would you want to join us? We only just ordered and there's a corner booth right over there."

Felicity whipped her head towards her friend and glared at her but Caitlin just shrugged in return not exactly afraid of Felicity at all. Oliver was shocked that she didn't hurt her neck by how fast she whipped around but was still extremely amused with everything that he was witnessing.

"I wouldn't want to impose." Oliver offers and before Felicity can even say anything Curtis cuts her off.

"You wouldn't be imposing." Felicity glares at him as well and he is slightly scared of the look on her face but he knows that she's not going to actually hurt him, at least that's his hope.

"Alright then, since you are all so insistent," Oliver says and the group gets up, Felicity pauses for a second or two and then gets up herself following the rest of the group to the booth being the last on of her friends to slide in. Oliver slides in easily next to her and she can't help being nervous by how close in proximity they are to each other.

"So I know what I am doing down here but what brought you guys all the way into the glades when you work downtown at Palmer Tech?" Oliver asks as he realizes that he just gave up the information that he knew where they worked and he suddenly did feel like a stalker. Oliver wouldn't openly admit it but once Felicity and her friends left he went back up to the office and looked her up and it's not every day that a 21-year-old becomes the assistant director o the applied sciences department of a Fortune 500 company. So a lot popped up once he typed in her name into google and now he was extremely self-conscious now that he gave up the information that he just googled her.

Felicity turned towards him eyebrow raised curious about how he has that kind of information. "How did you know that we worked at Palmer Tech? I'm starting to seriously consider that you actually are stalking me."

"I promise that it's not what it seems, I'm not some creepy stalker," Oliver states.

"It's going to take a lot more than just saying that you're not a stalker for us to believe that you are indeed not a stalker," Cisco comments making the whole group chuckle.

"After you left the club last night I may have googled you, but that's only because once you gave me your name I knew I had heard it somewhere. It was because I remembered my dad mentioning the article in the Starling City Gazette or something like that when you first got hired at Palmer Tech." Oliver said truthfully hoping that didn't come off as creepy as it sounded in his head.

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him trying to figure out whether or not she wanted to believe this, it didn't seem like the most unbelievable concept. Especially knowing who his father is that conversation could have very well happened.

"Come on you can't tell me that you haven't at least read one of the _many_ articles that are out there about me, not including the one that came out this morning," Oliver said knowing by the look on Felicity's face that he was indeed correct.

"Alright, I can't deny you that I guess," Felicity says with a smile on her face, the longer she was spending with Oliver the more she realized that he wasn't as bad as she always assumed that he was, which was on her. She always just assumed that he was this arrogant jerk who thought that he was above everyone and everything, but even just hanging around him for a few minutes he seemed to mingle in well with her friends which she was surprised about. She had to admit that she was wrong about him and that was something that she very rarely ever did, even in her own head.

She watched him for a few minutes and was a bit confused, however, why would Oliver Queen want to have dinner with her and her nerdy friends? They danced last night and made out for a total of an hour _at most_ and suddenly he is interested? What made her so special that he wanted to put in this sort of effort? Most guys in his situation would either turn and walk in the other direction or would pretend that they never saw her, they most definitely wouldn't insert himself into her friend group _like a boyfriend would_.

She suddenly became very aware of how close she was to him she was aware that they were touching from the shoulder all the way down to their knees. She shakes her head and moves closer to Curtis who is on her other side hoping that maybe the millimeter of distance she puts between them will help her stop the thoughts running through her head. Oliver Queen is not her boyfriend no matter how much he is coming off like it.

The waitress brings them all of their food even Oliver's which they are all about to ask how she knew what to bring him as he smiles at her and addresses her by name, "Thanks Jenny, put everyone's food on my tab tonight."

"Oh no you don't have to-" Caitlin starts.

"Caitlin, I say if the man wants to pay for our meal then let him. He's got a bazillion dollars it's not like he can't afford it." Cisco says making the rest of the group laugh, she saw both sides of the coin on this one. If Oliver was willing to pay for all of their meals why no,t but also it wasn't necessary.

"I insist really, I intruded on your night out and I kind of feel bad besides I am here every night anyways." Oliver offers.

"Is that how you know her name? I would have put money on the fact that you probably slept with her." Felicity jokes making them all laugh, half out of thinking it was a funny joke and half out of nervousness. Although when Felicity looks next to her she can see Curtis and Barry nodding their heads which make her laugh.

"Yeah, I would have also put money on that. You seem like a very Joey type of guy, except you actually seem smart." Curtis makes an offhand comment making the group laugh again as they all munch on their food. Oliver gives Curtis a confused look obviously the reference going right over his head and Felicity nearly smacks him.

"Joey Tribbiani...Like from Friends...The TV show." Felicity says looking over at Oliver and slight recognition lights his face but she can still tell that he is completely clueless.

"Have you lived under a rock for the last like 25 years?" Felicity asks making Oliver laugh and shake his head as he takes a fry from his basket.

"No. I just don't have time for a lot of TV that's all. The name does sound familiar, I'm sure that if I saw an episode I would know exactly what you're talking about" Oliver says and Felicity is still in awe that this man doesn't know what Friends is.

That's how most of the night went, with the group making obscure pop culture references and either Oliver having absolutely no clue what they were talking about or did and just didn't find it as hilarious as they all did. All in all it was a fun evening, it may have started out in pure embarrassment but it ended with all six of them actually having a good time.

They all got up and made their moves to leave, it may have been Friday but the group of them generally weren't very lively, except for last night and the handful of other occasions were they asked her out to drinks.

Oliver got up and offered Felicity his hands and she took it gracefully with a smile on her face. Her smile made his chest do this thing that he couldn't quite describe, he just knew that it wasn't a completely awful feeling. He took her coat from her almost out of the instinct of so many years of taking etiquette classes, you always help a lady into her coat. It also helped that he also wanted to impress Felicity a tad bit, he could tell it worked.

When he reached for her coat she almost snatched it back but then he held it open for her, he was helping her into her coat. That had for sure never happened to her but she couldn't say that she didn't like it. She smiled and chuckled a bit as she allowed him to help her thinking that it was a sweet gesture. A guy had never done something like that for her so it took her for a loop when he did it for her, she turned around and smiled at him.

The group said their goodbyes and parted ways until Monday, Felicity couldn't wait to get home and just be able to relax this weekend. The past two days have been exhausting but in a really good way.

Oliver watches the group leave and says his goodbyes, they all thanked him for dinner as they left and then it was just Oliver and Felicity walking out of the diner together. Felicity wants to tell him goodnight so that they can go their separate ways, but there's just something about him that makes her not want him to leave. She just wants to spend more time with him in whatever way she possibly can.

"Thanks for dinner tonight, you really didn't have to do that," Felicity comments as she turns and starts walking towards her car and Oliver follows, she somehow just knows that he won't let anything bad happen to her.

"You're welcome but you don't need to thank me, you and your friends were kind enough to let me join you for dinner it felt like the least that I could do," Oliver commented hoping that he didn't overstep.

"Even so, paying for our dinner seemed a bit extreme, but thank you anyway," Felicity says she wasn't going to say what she was thinking but why the hell not honesty is the best policy right? There was also a small chance that they would ever see each other again.

"I was wrong about you, I made all of these assumptions about you and you are continuously proving me wrong and it's kind of annoying," Felicity comments making Oliver laugh, he looks so carefree when he laughs that she almost wants to say something else funny so that she can see him look so handsome.

"Oh? And what kind of assumptions have you made about me Ms. Smoak?" He asks a little glint in his eye, she sees her car a few feet away and silently curses herself that she didn't park farther. She stops at her car and turns towards him so that she could get a better look at him.

"Well that you were some spoiled rich boy for one, that didn't care about anyone but himself. Also that you were probably a fuck boy that sleeps with whatever girl he meets and doesn't know how to take no for an answer. I'm pleasantly surprised that you are incredibly sweet, you spent the whole night with a group of science nerds and I could tell by the look on your face you didn't have a clue what we were talking about. Yet you either sat there and listened or asked questions in order to understand what we were talking about. I have to admit you're not the man that the press makes you out to be."

Oliver smiles at her and blushes at all of the kind words that she just said about him, no one has ever really said that many nice things about him before. It makes him feel like he actually might be doing something right by changing the way his life is going. "Well, in your defense a year ago all of your assumptions would have been completely correct. After a while sleeping with random girls and treating them like shit isn't as fun as it used to be, plus you start to feel like a jerk. This once I slept with this girl that I swear I had never slept with before but it turns out I did, I just couldn't remember. I was a class A jerk I will be the first to admit it."

Felicity listens to his words impressed that he can point that out about himself, that he can take a step back and be able to point out his flaws. A lot of people, especially of his status, think that they are entitled to be jerks, but he saw the error in his ways and decided to change his life. For that, she has to give him credit. She stares up at him with a smile on her face, she has only known this man a day and yet somehow she feels something for him. There is obviously something there between them and for once she really isn't scared to figure out what it is.

"Well I for one am glad that you realized what a jerk you were because I get the feeling that I wouldn't have liked the other Oliver Queen, but this one? He's not so bad." She says and smiles up at him and he blushes again. She notices the blush and laughs lightly.

"Dare I say it, is Oliver Queen embarrassed?" Felicity jokes with him and gives his shoulder a gentle nudge and he laughs making even blush even redder.

"No. It's just cold out here," Oliver says but Felicity doesn't believe a word that he just said and continued to stare at him with a raised eyebrow until he continued.

"No one has ever said stuff like that about me. People always make the assumptions that you do and instead of getting to know me they just make their assumptions and treat me like the kid that I was before." Oliver says and Felicity tilts her head as she looks up at him, she can see the insecurities flashing through his eyes and for a moment she feels bad for him. People that haven't even really gotten to know him to surmise that he is some jackass like he was before without really taking a second to realize that he's different.

"I know what it's like for people to make assumptions about you, people have done that with me my whole life. Even though I have grown used to it, it doesn't mean that it hurts any less when they do it. You just kind of have to learn that what these people think and say about you aren't actually who you are. If they don't care enough to actually get to know the real you then screw them because they obviously don't deserve you." Felicity says and when she looks up at Oliver he's beaming down at her like she just told him that he won the lottery.

"You truly are remarkable Felicity."

She looks up at him with a smile on her face that she knows is giving away exactly how she is feeling, despite her better judgment she really likes this guy. There's just something about him that she can't quite put her finger on yet. "Thank you for remarking on it."

They both stare at each other with dopey smiles on their faces before Felicity realizes that they are just standing there like idiots smiling at each other, "I should probably get going." Felicity says gesturing behind her to her car and Oliver nods.

"Okay, I had a really great time tonight, I'm glad that we ran into each other, Felicity. It was a hell of a lot better than my original plan which was to take it home and watch TV alone." Oliver says relieved that he didn't do that for what seemed to be the millionth time.

Felicity nods in agreement as she takes her keys out of her pocket and starts to fidget with them nervously. "I'm really glad that we ran into each other tonight too."

"Can I at least get your number tonight? Don't think I didn't notice last night that you got this smug look on your face from turning me down. Maybe we could do dinner if you're feeling up for it..." Oliver said with a smile on his face as Felicity threw her head back in laughter at his earlier comment.

"In my defense that wasn't really me, that was my alter ego and she seems to hate the idea of me going out with any guy whatsoever. But I do have to admit it did feel good to know that I am probably on a small list of people that have turned you down." She said with a smug smile on her face avoiding the question of dinner and giving him her phone number, she liked him and wouldn't hate the idea of going out with him. However, dating Oliver Queen sounds like a recipe for disaster, always being in the media and all of that, it didn't appeal to her.

"I someone enjoyed that awkward moment," Oliver said as he took out his phone and opened it up to a screen to add a new contact hoping that he wouldn't get turned down for a second time.

"What do you say? We can just be friends if going out to dinner with me sounds that appalling, I really like hanging out with you. You seem to see me for me and not who I used to be and I have to say that it's honestly refreshing." Oliver says praying to any god that would listen to let her at least give him her phone number.

Felicity looked at him and then to the phone and what could really be so bad about giving him her number? She liked him and he wasn't awful to look at either, plus she already knew that he was an amazing kisser so if things ended up going further she at least knew things wouldn't be awful in the bedroom.

She smiled up at him and tilted her head as she stared into his eyes, just like at the club she didn't seem to be able to look away from them, it was like she was transfixed on them. She let out a little content sigh and grabbed the phone from him relenting and giving in knowing that she wasn't going to be able to resist that gorgeous smile for much longer.

Oliver was nearly giddy when she took the phone from him and put in her number, he had to admit that he was slightly surprised. He didn't think that she would actually agree but he wouldn't question it and just accept the fact that she also likes him as well.

"I will agree to one dinner, that is it." Felicity put her foot down, when John told her to get out there and start meeting new people I don't think he intended for her to befriend Star City's resident playboy and agree to go out on a date with him. Which for all she knew could be one giant ruse to get into her pants and then leave, normally she would find that revolting, but this time she just curious about what Oliver Queen of all people sees in her.

Felicity handed the phone back to him and he had a smile on his face that she couldn't help but mirror back at him, she was glad to know that something as simple as giving him her number was putting such a beautiful smile on his handsome face.

"I'll call you and we can set up a date and time for that dinner that you now owe me," Oliver said with a smile and a wink.

"Owe you? I don't remember this being a verbally binding contract." Felicity said and Oliver smiled.

"Oh you must have missed it I had my lawyer draw up a contract and everything." Oliver flirted back and Felicity smiled against her better judgment, complying in flirty banter with him was actually quite endearing and a lot of fun.

"I'll see you around Oliver," Felicity said and stepping up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and moved away before it became anything more than that.

"Goodnight Felicity."

"Goodnight Oliver." Felicity made her way around her car and got in and watched as Oliver walked in the direction that they just came from which made her smile even wider knowing that he went out of his way just to walk her to her car.

She put the key in the ignition and turned it and the engine did nothing but turn over and never starting. She groaned and let her head fall onto the steering wheel.

"Frack." It looks like she was going to have an interesting end to the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Felicity sighed and took out her phone as she got out of the car to call Oliver back here but realized that she doesn't have his number and looked around he couldn't have gotten too far. Just as she was about to start running down the street a random number showed up on her phone and she knew that it was him.

"You just can't get enough can you?" She flirted over the phone and laughed at how eager he was.

"What can I say I can't resist when a beautiful woman gives me her number, I have to call her just to make sure she gave me the right one," Oliver says.

"What would you say if a beautiful girl's car won't start and she needs a jump," Felicity says and she hears a huff on the other side of the phone.

"Felicity Smoak, are you using me to get a jump-start right now?" Oliver flirts.

"Yes. Yes, I am." Felicity says not even sorry, she's desperate and in a shady part of the Glades.

Oliver laughs and shakes his head as he walks up to his car and gets in starting it without a problem from what Felicity can hear and she is slightly jealous. Felicity lets out a sigh of relief knowing that he was coming to help her and she wasn't stuck here.

"Alright, I'm on my way to you," Oliver says and Felicity smiles getting back into her car.

"My knight in shining armor...Thank you, Oliver. I really appreciate this."

"No need to thank me, Felicity, besides I can't exactly just leave you stranded on the side of the road in a sketchy part of the Glades. What kind of person would that make me if I just left a beautiful woman all alone in a sketchy area? I think I would get my knight in shining armor license revoked." Oliver said a laugh bubbling up from his chest as he pulled around the block heading towards Felicity's car.

Felicity laughed at his comment and shook her head, was he always this charming with every girl? She was now starting to see why everyone was attracted to him so much, he knew how to flirt with a girl and make her feel special.

"Well we couldn't have that now could we?" Felicity flirts back as she sees a car coming towards her who she is assuming is Oliver as the car pulls up in front of her facing her. She pulls the latch to open the hood of her car and gets out hanging up the phone before even hearing his response.

"Well hey there stranger, fancy meeting you here," Oliver says as he jumps out of the car. Felicity sticks out her tongue at him and crosses her arms across her chest.

"Oh, you think you're so funny don't you?" Felicity says as Oliver moves around to the back of his car getting jumper cables and moves back to the front of both of their cars.

"Marginally so yes, at the very least," Oliver says lifting up the hood of his car and Felicity does the same on hers chuckling to herself. At least this gave her a reason to see him again because if she was being honest she didn't really want to say goodbye to him tonight.

Oliver hooks up the jumper cables to his car and Felicity can't help but sit there and watch him as he does, admiring the nice view of his ass right in front of her. She had to admit that she could _definitely_ understand why people went crazy over him. Before she didn't quite understand it, he was just a guy. But now after spending some time with him and getting to know him a bit, she understood it completely. He was also very nice to look at, like a beautiful painting at the Louvre. Something that you continue to stare at and you don't even know why it's just that beautiful that you can't help yourself.

"You know if you took a picture it would last longer," Oliver said bringing her out of her trance and back into the real world. She then notices Oliver had turned around and was now staring at her, she blushed and looked down at her feet as Oliver moves to her car and connects the jumper cables.

"How do you know how to do this anyway? I never would have pegged you to know much about cars let alone how to jump one." Felicity asks out of curiosity.

Oliver turns towards her after he connects the cables and gives her his trademark playboy smile that she tried desperately to not let affect her but she failed tremendously. "In high school, I went into the garage and found our driver trying to fix one of our cars and I asked him what he was doing. He told me and walked me through step by step how to fix it and ever since then I have had an interest in cars. I'm not a huge buff but I know enough that I could fix some easy problems with almost any car."

Felicity smiled up at him and shook her head slightly, the trademark smile on his face was replaced with an easy soft smile. "You continue to surprise me, Queen."

He smiles down at her and nods towards the car, "Why don't you go and see if this does the trick for you."

Felicity pushes off the car and opens the door trying to start the car but it continues to make the same noise that it did before. She groans as she lets go of the key and lets her head fall onto the steering wheel.

"It sounds to me like you need a new battery," Oliver says from behind her hood and Felicity huffs getting back out of the car, it's not like she didn't have the money to fix it, there's just always something wrong with this car and it was grating her nerves.

"Really? Is that an easy fix?" She says coming to meet him at the front of the car.

"Yeah, it's only a couple hundred dollar fix and wouldn't take too long to do," Oliver says leaving the cables on her car hoping that maybe it just needs to be charged for a little while longer.

Felicity groans and curses her car for doing this to her and put her head in her hands. Oliver tries and fails not to chuckle which makes Felicity narrow her eyes and glare at him. "Stop laughing this is not funny."

Oliver tries to sober up and stop laughing but it's useless and he chuckles, even more, causing Felicity to smack his arm. "Oliver!"

"What? It's always funny when it's not happening to you." Oliver says as he calms himself down and shakes his head.

"Go and try it one more time and if the engine doesn't start then I can drive you home and you'll have to call a tow to come out here tomorrow morning," Oliver says and Felicity does as he says and tries to turn the car on again only for it not to turn on. Felicity grimaces and grabs her purse from the passenger side seat, well it looks like Oliver is going to be driving her home.

Oliver gives her a sympathetic look as she gets ous and locks the car, he wants to say something charming but chooses instead to keep quiet taking off the cables in the opposite order that he put them on. He takes them off of his car the same way and then closes the hood putting the jumper cables back in his trunk.

Felicity shuts the hood on her car trying not to let the frustration seep into her blood and take it out on her poor mini cooper, it wasn't his fault that he was so old and starting to die. Felicity smiles at Oliver as he makes his way back to the front of his car.

"Thanks for coming back here and trying to help me, I really appreciate it," Felicity says.

Oliver nods and puts his hands in his pockets. "It's not that big of a deal really, I wouldn't be able to just leave you stranded here at 10 o'clock at night and still be able to sleep tonight."

"Well not everyone would have, you sure you can drive me home?" Felicity asks a bit self-conscious, she knew that Dig was working all day today and she didn't want him to see Oliver Queen of all people dropping her off and give her a whole lecture. After the day she has had she is not at all prepared for the lecture she knew that she was going to get from him.

"I'm positive, besides, I don't think that you have much of a choice in the matter considering your car is dead and once I leave you are completely alone." Oliver points out.

Felicity sighs but nods knowing that he is right, she could call a cab but then she would have to wait god only knows how long until it actually gets here. "You make lots of valid points, ready to go then?"

"I'm ready when you are. " Oliver turns around and opens her door for her, she blushes and watches him intently as she walks around him and gets into the car. He closes the door behind her and runs around the car making her giggle as she watches him. Even after her car battery dying, he can still somehow make her feel light and happy. It's really hard for her to believe that they have only known each other for 24 hours maybe even less.

Oliver gets into the car and smiles at her before pulling out of the spot he had parked in and started to head in the direction of the city. Felicity smiled as he just started driving while never actually asking for where she lived, she stayed silent for a while wondering if he was ever going to notice.

After a few minutes, he smiled and shook his head looking towards her while they were at a red light, " I just realized that it might help if I knew where I was headed in order to drop you off at your apartment."

Felicity nodded and chuckled, "I live on the corner of Lafayette and 32nd, that really tall apartment building."

"Oh, I know that one. I slept with a girl…" Oliver stopped mid-sentence choosing wisely not to say anything else. Felicity turned towards him with a raised eyebrow and an expression of mirth on her face.

"I'm going to choose not to finish that statement."

"Good choice," Felicity says laughing and Oliver visibly relaxes hearing her laugh, he was trying really hard not to screw any of this up for himself because he seemed to be really good at that. Oliver pulls up to the building and gets out and runs over to her side of the car letting her out.

Felicity was about to get out of the car when she noticed this and decided to let him have this. He had been such a gentleman all night, besides the comment about the girl that he had slept with from earlier. She knew not to believe most anything that she read in the tabloids but when you don't have any sort of personal connection with the person it's hard not to believe it. She was starting to feel a bit guilty for always believing that Oliver was this master playboy who was always running game when it came to girls, he was proving her completely wrong tonight.

Felicity smiled as she stepped out of the car and saw that Diggle was standing vigil at the front doors and watching them intently. She gave him a look that said 'knock it off' and he rolled his eyes and looked away from the two without Oliver ever noticing that there was anything amiss.

"Thank you for driving me home Oliver, it was sweet of you," Felicity said trying and failing not to continue to watch Diggle from over Oliver's shoulder.

"Anytime, I'm happy to help whenever a pretty girl asks." Oliver flirted and Felicity heard Dig scuff from in back of him. She smiled and reached up on her toes giving Oliver a quick kiss at the corner of his mouth.

"Goodnight Oliver."

"Night Felicity," Oliver said with a blush on his cheeks as he walked around his car to get back in, giving her one last glance before he drove off.

Felicity looked to John with a narrowed glare on her face wondering what his problem was. It didn't matter if Oliver even noticed or not, Dig was always like this whenever she brought anyone back.

"What's got you huffing and puffing over there?" Felicity asks as she walked closer to him and crosses her arms across her chest.

"You know damn well, that guy is playing you. He is just in it for one reason and one reason only. Don't fool yourself Felicity, when I said go out and meet someone I didn't mean Ollie Queen." Dig says looking straight ahead and never directly at her, he knew better than that. He never really openly spoke to her about her love life and knew that he was taking a big leap right now hoping that she wasn't going to use her loud voice and get angry.

"John you don't know _anything _about Oliver, I would appreciate if you didn't judge him based on the things you read in all of those trashy tabloids," Felicity said.

John looked over at her and raised an eyebrow and she knew what he was about to say before it even came out of his mouth, "Oh, you mean like that trashy tabloid that you were in this morning with him? The one where you two seem to know each other very well it seems."

"I resent that, I can do as I please John you do realize that. I can make a judgment call about whether or not someone is a good person on my own. I don't need you treating me like I'm a child." Felicity said annoyed at him for the way that he was treating her, he seemed to always do this. He would treat her like a damsel in distress and like she couldn't take care of herself, whenever she so much as brings someone by after a date he always feels the need to put in his two cents.

"After two tours in Afghanistan Felicity, you learn how to read people and that man only wants one thing, and it's not to be your Prince Charming," Dig says, he always means well and he understands that maybe he is a little too over-protective of her. He can't help it, she is like a little sister to him and the last thing that he wants is for her to come to him crying yet again because some douchebag left her hanging and never called her.

Felicity rolls her eyes and scuffs annoyed with this, he can't keep this up and continue to speak bad juju into every relationship that she has. "Oh and I'm sure that you would have me single forever and to die all alone."

"Don't twist my words around Felicity that's not what I am saying. Just be careful with that one, he has trouble written all over him. I didn't mean to impose but you know that you're like a little sister to me, all I want for you is to be happy and with a good guy." John looks at her now with a calm and collected look on his face which leads Felicity to believe that he means business. She knows that he is only looking out for her but sometimes he just steps too far over the line. There is nothing malicious behind John's actions, he has no ulterior motives. She walks up to him giving in and gives him a quick peck on the cheek in a thank you.

"I know, but sometimes you have to let me make my own mistakes. My life my choice remember? I will be careful I promise. Goodnight John, say hi to Lyla for me when you get home."

She walks into the door that he's holding open for her and walks straight back to the one elevator in the lobby. All she wanted was to go up to her apartment and open that bottle of Rose that seemed to be calling her name. She walked up to her door and opened it with ease not giving it much thought before she closed the door and locked it behind herself. She walked into the kitchen and immediately grabs the bottle and opens it within a few minutes and takes a swig straight from the bottle not even caring.

What if John was right? What if she just didn't know how to choose guys? What if she couldn't see what was right in front of her face? What if all Oliver really did want was to get into her pants and then leave? She wouldn't exactly be surprised if that was how things turned out, she has read enough tabloids to seem to have formed her own opinion on the man before even getting the chance to know him.

However, he did seem genuine, all night long it never seemed like he was putting on some sort of act for her. But maybe that was the act, making it all seem natural, like he liked her. Maybe he wanted a challenge, see how much he could get her to fall for him and then sleep with her and then leave…

No. There was no way that's what was happening, she felt something most definitely, there was something there between them. Besides she knew not to always believe everything that you read in the tabloids, half the time they are completely untrue and not to be believed under any circumstances. She just needed to trust him when he says that he has changed and that he isn't like that anymore.

If he really was would he admit to being a playboy before? Only someone who could really take a step back and examine himself would be able to see how truly awful he had treated people and consciously make a change. But what if all of that was a giant lie?

"Oh my goodness all of this overthinking is giving me a migraine," Felicity says to herself as she takes a gulp of wine while walking into her bedroom. Babbling to others is something she has learned to control over the years but babbling to herself, is a whole different story. She could talk to herself in her head for hours until finally, she has enough and puts on a mind-numbing TV show.

Felicity gets ready for bed, throwing on some sweats and an old MIT hoodie before going into her living room and turning on the TV, hoping that there is something to help her forget all about her troubles. However, the moment she turns on the TV it's on TMZ and they are in fact covering the 'story' of Ollie Queens new 'love interest'. The picture of her was very unflattering, taken from a low angle and blurry you could barely make out her face and she grimaced, she could not believe that TMZ found this a buzzworthy topic. They needed some new material.

"Is it even possible that there are women that this man hasn't slept with? I mean I feel like he must of _at least_ slept with every single girl in Starling City and now is going back for seconds." One of the girls said and Felicity grimaced in response to what she had to say about Oliver, Felicity often forgets that the Queens aren't only famous in Star City. That they are a nationally famous family, one that gets dragged through the mud on TMZ because she and Oliver happened to get caught making out on the dance floor.

"This girl doesn't look like his type though, he normally goes for the brunette's not blonde's, maybe he really has slept with every brunette in Starling and now he is resorting to blonde's." One of the men said making them all laugh and Felicity grimaced and sighed while changing the channel, she was not in the mood to listen to people talk about Oliver's, for lack of a better term, mating habits.

She put on another mindless TV show as her mind went off on a tangent about anything and everything Oliver Queen. What if everyone was right and he was playing her, that wouldn't really be out of the ordinary. But out of everything that he told her tonight it really didn't seem plausible for that to be the truth, that all he was looking for was a good lay. He seemed honest in everything that he did today and everything that he said to her.

She couldn't continue to think about this though if she did she was going to go crazy, she couldn't continue to let everyone make decisions for her. She trusted Oliver and that was that, nothing else to be said about it. Her phone starts ringing and she debates just letting it go to voicemail but she didn't have anything else to do and maybe it would distract her from Oliver. She picks it up without even glancing to see who it is.

"Hello."

"Hey, I couldn't resist calling you. I tried coming up with a plausible reason that didn't make me seem obsessed but nothing came to mind." Oliver said and Felicity sighed. She smiled to herself and pinched the bridge of her nose, speak of the devil and he shall show his face.

"Oliver, hey. I'm glad that you called, I was starting to wonder if you made it home okay." That was a lie, she is just trying to cover up for the fact that she was obsessing over him. Just like it seems like he was obsessing over her, she can't decide whether or not that makes her feel better.

"I live far outside of the city so it takes about 20 minutes to get home every night." Oliver offers up and somehow it only hits Felicity now that Oliver is rich, that he lives 20 minutes outside of the city because he lives in a mansion. Up until this point, it had never really _hit her_ who Oliver Queen was. Yeah, she knew that he was the fuck boy of Starling but she really didn't seem to comprehend this until just now and it feels like her chest was about to cave in.

"Right, yeah that's right. You live in that giant mansion outside of the city with all of the other rich folk. Where you probably sit on piles of money talking about other things that rich people talk about like Yachts and private islands that they own and fancy cars and-"

"Felicity breath. Are you okay? You seem...off. Did something happen in the span of 20 minutes since I dropped you off?" Oliver asks.

Felicity doesn't know exactly what to say to that, she suddenly realizes that she was just uncontrollably babbling on and on about rich people and prematurely judging him. It probably sounded completely awful and she suddenly got very hot with the intensity of her blush.

"Do you count getting into a fight with my best friend slash doorman, drinking half a bottle of rose, and finding out that the pictures from that gossip website were on TMZ tonight 'something that happened'?" Felicity asks, she hears herself and she understands that she sounds a bit manic right now and that he probably thinks that she is insane and that ever liking her was a terribly horrible idea.

"Why did you get into a fight with your doorman?" Oliver asks and she can tell that he is trying not to laugh.

"Out of all of the things I just said that's what you picked up on?" Felicity asks laughing a little feeling herself calm down and taking another sip of the rose, she has Oliver to thank for that she guesses and also the alcohol.

"Well, that's the most unusual statement that I have heard. Drinking half a bottle of rose isn't awful, especially if you have had a bad day, and the TMZ thing is normal for me so it doesn't bother me. But the part about getting in a fight with your doorman and also him being your best friend is a bit peculiar and I would like to hear this story. How _does_ one become that close with their doorman?" Oliver flirts back and Felicity gives a hearty laugh and shakes her head as she thinks back onto the moment that she met Dig.

"I was new to the city and when he saw that I was moving in and all alone he offered to help me move all of my stuff into my apartment. It's also important to know that he had just gotten off a double shift as security of the building, he was the first person to be nice to me when I moved here. So over the past four years, he has become my best friend, I babysit for him and his wife and go over there for dinner sometimes. He is a really good guy." Felicity says a smile on her face.

"So what did you two get into a fight about? Must have been something serious to make you go to your apartment and down half a bottle of wine."

Felicity sighs not knowing whether or not she should tell him the truth about the fight, that the fight was actually about him and whether or not she could trust him. "It wasn't about anything important."

There was a pause on the other end of the line and Felicity got the feeling that was Oliver trying to decide whether or not to believe the lies that she was spewing out. Felicity knew that it probably wasn't the best idea to lie to him, she really liked him and she could possibly see this going somewhere. She knew that she shouldn't be lying to him but she also knew that telling him the rude things that John said about him wouldn't do any good.

"I have half a mind not to believe a word of what you just said to me, but if you don't want to tell me you don't have to, it's not any of my business really," Oliver said.

Felicity internally sighed, relieved that Oliver wasn't going to question her about what happened, the truth is she wants to talk about it to someone. She wants to share the one and only fight she's ever gotten into with him but Oliver was not the person to vent to about this particular subject.

"Thank you. I just really don't want to talk about it at the moment, we worked things out so there's really nothing going on anymore." Felicity offered to try and placate him in hopes that he won't continue thinking about it.

"Plus I'm pretty sure that it was a fight about me considering the death glare he gave me the moment he saw me. Most people have their opinions of me considering I grew up in the spotlight. I try not to focus on people that aren't part of my inner circle, people are going to think what they will and there's nothing I can do to stop them from forming their own opinions about me or my family."

Felicity bites her lip, an anxious habit that she's had ever since her dad left, back when she was eight. He hit it right on the nose and she felt guilty, she was doing exactly what he says that everyone does, forming her own opinions on him and it's only based on 24 hours of knowing the man. She is basically judging him based on what the media thinks and says about him and that isn't fair to him at all. That makes her just as bad as probably half of the city and she suddenly feels extremely guilty, he is sharing all of this with her probably in the hopes that she will trust him instead of the media and she can't help but fall for what she is seeing on some trashy TV show. She wants to be able to trust him, so she jumps and makes that leap, whether it's smart or not.

"Are you trying to tell me that you consider me part of your inner circle? Is that why you are sharing this with me?" Felicity asks trying to gauge exactly what is going on between them without asking the typical and annoying question of 'What exactly are we?'

"I would like you to be, we haven't known each other long enough but I would like to be able to trust you. You don't seem like everyone else, I have to admit that it was refreshing when we first met you acted like you had no clue who I was. It felt like for once I could be myself and that you weren't going to prematurely form your own assumptions about me."

"If we are both on the honesty train I already had presumptions in my head about you, I just didn't show them. I am a big believer in letting people show their true colors before really judging them. I did think, going in, that you were a playboy and that after last night in the club I wouldn't hear from you again. Part of the reason I turned you down was that I didn't want to get caught in your web and be another notch in your bedpost. But you have proved me wrong since dinner, you don't seem to be playing some game to get into my pants. At least I am choosing to believe you aren't because if you are that would really suck." Felicity says with a laugh wanting nothing more than what she was saying to be true, she wanted him to prove her wrong.

"I guess you'll have to trust me then. All that I can say is that I like you Felicity and I want to see where this can go. It is true that I have slept around a lot, I have slept with more women than I can count."

"Yeah, because that makes me feel better." Felicity scuffs and takes another drink from the bottle of win hoping that there is a point to all of this.

"My point is that most of what the tabloids put out was true about me, but it's from a few years ago, I have started to turn my life around. I don't want to be that guy anymore." Oliver admits and Felicity doesn't have to see him to know that he is being genuine and sincere, she can hear it in the tone of his voice.

"Okay." It's the only thing that Felicity can think to say, it doesn't sound like a lot but judging by the conviction in Oliver's voice she trusts him enough to know that he's not going to hurt her.


	4. Chapter 4

The weekend was immensely boring compared to the last day and a half, she spent all of Saturday in her sweats and just relaxing. The only exciting thing she did was called a tow truck to get her car and find out that it was exactly what Oliver said was wrong with it. Her battery decided that it wanted to crap out and it was going to cost her $200 to fix but she wasn't going to complain because it could be a lot worse.

All-day was spent on the couch frying her brain while she watched reality TV and folded some laundry, she didn't even feel slightly bad for never changing out of her pajamas or showering. Oliver called her at the end of the night and they talked for hours, neither Felicity or Oliver were able to hang up.

"So what are you doing tomorrow night? Planning on staying in all-day again?" Oliver asks as he starts his cooldown on the treadmill, he needed to get a work out in so that her could run off some steam. Felicity wasn't complaining either she could hear him working out and it was stirring something up inside of her that she hasn't felt since college.

"Nothing much, probably going to go grocery shopping and then make myself a mediocre dinner," Felicity says as she folds the last of her laundry.

Oliver chuckles and nods hearing exactly what he needed to hear for his next question. "Well since you don't have anything going on, do you want to go out to dinner with me tomorrow?"

The spoonful of ice cream she was about to eat stops in midair, her mouth open not exactly knowing what to say or how to react to his question, was he asking her out? Was _Oliver Queen_ asking her out on a date? This is definitely something that she never thought would happen to her, actually, that's a lie, over the last couple of days she has kind of grown to have a crush on Oliver. He also isn't being too subtle about the fact that he also likes her but she isn't complaining, it's not unwanted attention.

"Oliver Queen are you asking me out on a date?" Felicity asks setting down the spoonful of ice cream.

Oliver smiles and gives a little laugh, how has it only been a few days of knowing her and he can't seem to get enough? "Yes, indeed I am. Are you saying yes?"

"Hmmm, I mean I will have to check my schedule, see if I have any spare time." Felicity flirts back already excited about this date tomorrow and mentally going through her closet for the best dress to wear.

"Oh right because you are such a busy woman," Oliver says with a laugh also making Felicity laugh and shake her head.

"I'll have my people call your people," Felicity says.

Oliver laughs as he shuts off the treadmill and hops off grabbing all of his stuff and heading upstairs to take a quick shower before falling into bed. "Great. I'll pick you up around 6."

Felicity smiles and nods to herself knowing that he can't see her, she could squeal and flail around with how giddy and excited she was. She hasn't felt like this about anyone since college and it was a great change of pace for once. She was actually excited to go out on a date with someone and Oliver Queen no less. "Awesome, so how come you have had the past couple nights off? Who's running the club?"

"Tommy. We made a deal when we opened the club that we would alternate mornings and nights. Every two weeks we switch, so I am currently there during the day and doing all of the paperwork and shipments and putting everything away and making sure that everything is good for when the club actually opens." Oliver makes his way up the stairs to the upper floor with all of the bedrooms and he is currently regretting all of the running and the fact that it was leg day because he is having some trouble waking.

"That seems fair but also terrible on your body and sleep schedule, I remember when I used to be a barista in college I had different hours every week and it wreaked havoc on my entire life." Felicity shivered as she remembered that terrible time in her life, she truly does not miss working through college and closing one night and then having an 8 am the next day.

"Come to think of it I really don't know how I survived working until midnight and then going to class at 8 am the next morning I wouldn't even be awake during class. I am truly astonished about the way I used to live my life in college," Felicity admits.

"I wouldn't know what any of that is like I flunked out of all four ivy leagues that I went to," Oliver admits with a laugh as he enters his room and collapses onto his bed not being able to resist the nice mattress that was calling his name.

"Oh how nice that would have been, tell me Oliver; what is it like to have flunked out of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth?" Felicity teases him and chuckles not being able to resist the temptation. She is slightly jealous that he didn't ever have to worry about any of that growing up, but she wouldn't give up her life for anything.

"Hardy har har, judge me if you must, I will be the first to admit that I was not the most responsible when I was in my 20's. I will also admit that those four years are a giant haze from either being completely drunk or so hungover I couldn't remember anything even if I wanted to." Oliver admitted with a laugh, everyone already knew this part of his past and he has just learned to accept it and what he has done.

"I mean I can't judge you too much, I was a huge partier in college. Frequented all of the nightclubs around Boston and went to all of the good raves, I don't know where I found the time though. Between classes, homework, work, and being a hacktivist I'm wondering if I ever slept those four years at MIT." Felicity jokes as she goes back to her ice cream and takes another giant bite.

"Wow, and you judge me for being a partier when you yourself were one, I have to say Felicity I am disappointed. What's a hacktivist? Is that some tech term that went straight over my head?" Oliver asks.

Felicity chuckles and shakes her head wondering to herself if she even really wants to tell him what it is for the sheer embarrassment of it all. She isn't shy about her skills, she is really good at what she does but she is even better at hacking and getting information that she shouldn't be able to have access to regularly. However she will also be the first to admit she didn't make the brightest decisions in college.

"It's Internet activism, hacktivism is the use of technology to promote a political agenda or a social change. In layman's terms, I would hack government agencies to get information that I thought that the public should have access to that they didn't, very illegal depending on who I am hacking." Felicity says hoping that Oliver doesn't think that she in some crazy person.

"Wait really? That's a thing? That sounds awesome, I mean dangerous in lots of ways, especially because I am almost positive that you can go to jail for stuff like that, but that's really awesome you did it anyway. Knowing that you could get arrested but going through because you thought that people deserved to know the information you were getting is pretty brave." Oliver says amazed that she had the bravery and courage to do these things knowing that there was a chance that she could go to prison for it.

"I would only go to jail if they caught me and they never did nor will they if I ever did it again, I may sound arrogant but it's really me just knowing that I am extremely good at what I do and covering my tracks. No one would ever be able to catch me and figure out where I am hacking from." Felicity says as she gets up from her couch putting the ice cream back in the freezer.

"You sound very confident, it's slightly arousing but also terrifying knowing that you could probably find out anyones secrets, including mine," Oliver says as he laughs embarrassed that he just told her that he was aroused by what she just told him.

Felicity blushes and lets out a hearty laugh at Oliver's comment, "If it's online I can find it no matter how badly you want it hidden, should I be concerned that my talking about hacking turns you on? That's definitely not something I thought I would ever hear you say."

Oliver lets out a groan of embarrassment hoping that she didn't hear what he had said or would have just ignored it altogether, it's not something he really even wants to explain. Just for the simple fact that he doesn't even really know how to explain what just came out of his mouth. "That's not exactly what I said."

"Oh no? I believe your words were that what I was saying was slightly arousing, I would really like to hear you elaborate on this subject." Felicity teased and tried to stifle a laugh that was starting to bubble up in her chest. "I would consider that you finding what I am talking about arousing wouldn't you?"

"I would like to point out that what you are doing is completely mean and unfair," Oliver says shifting uncomfortably on his bed.

"I don't know if I would call this mean or unfair, I am just trying to figure out your weird kinks and fetishes so I'm not surprised later on. Let's just call it research." Felicity said teasing him a bit more and shaking her head, knowing very well that she was making him uncomfortable. But she had to admit that it was fun knowing that she had some power over Oliver Queen.

"Well, I would not like to participate in this weird experiment that you have going on right now," Oliver says laughing and sitting up on his bed making his way to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for bed.

"Party pooper," Felicity says with an indignant look on her face as she tries not to laugh, how was talking with him so pleasant and easy? It was like they had known each other for years, they haven't wanted to hang up all night. Even while Oliver was working out she still stayed on the phone and they talked, she has to admit that this is all a very strange feeling to her but she didn't mind it at all.

"Well I don't mean to rain on your parade I do actually need to hang up, one may not think so but mornings at the club are very busy and very brutal."

"Yeah? What's so brutal about being in a night club while it's still daylight outside?" Felicity asks.

"Well for one its dead quiet and that's just a strange existence for me and second there is a lot of paperwork to be done. I am also pretty sure that the delivery guys hate me so that makes the day a little bit more stressful." One of the delivery guy's actually does hate him and if he is correct in his eavesdropping skills its because he slept with the guy's girlfriends a while back and it caused them to break up. He wouldn't be surprised if the old Ollie Queen did something like that, he was a bit of a prick.

"I don't know if stressful is the word I would use to describe that situation. Boring might be a better word to describe your job." Felicity says not feeling even slightly bad for him, granted running a club might not be a walk in the park but it did sound fairly more exciting than an office job.

"Think of it this way you could be working at Queen Consolidated and just sit at a desk all day while schmoozing investors and taking their hard-earned money for your family company." Felicity compares.

"Hell that might happen soon enough, my dad is desperate for me to take over the company. It's not that I don't want to either because I don't think it would be awful, but it does sound incredibly boring. It might be my family's company but that doesn't make it something that I want to spend my life working on." Oliver admits for the first time, he hasn't told anyone how he really feels about his father and him trying to pressure him into working for the company.

"I haven't ever said that out loud before, I have thought about it for years but haven't ever told anyone that." Oliver is suddenly feeling self-conscious like Felicity might suddenly judge him for what he just told her.

"I feel honored that you decided to share that with me. I don't know what any of that is like but it can't be easy when someone is trying to push you to do something that you don't want to do, especially when it's one of your parents," Felicity says. She does feel slightly bad for Oliver, his parents must just want him to do nothing but take over the company and not even care what he wants in the process.

"I made a promise to myself about a year ago when I started to turn my life around that if and when I have kids I would never do what my parents did to me. I would never force them to do something just because that's what I wanted from them." Oliver says feeling even more vulnerable as he shares his fears and hopes for one day when he has a family.

"I'm sorry we have only known each other for a few days and here I am talking about kids like it's no big deal," Oliver says a bit embarrassed at his admission.

Felicity blushes at the thought of little Oliver Queens running around, wow they are really delving into deep waters. Normally she would freak out if a guy even mentioned kids, not because she didn't want them because she did. Just not anytime soon, but for some reason, Oliver talking about these things doesn't scare her.

"That's not a bad promise to make to yourself, also don't be sorry. If you would have mentioned about us having kids together then that would have been a completely separate story. I probably would already be running for the hills, but you just mentioned a fear of yours, one that is totally valid by the way. I have a massive fear of turning into my mother whenever I end up starting a family." Felicity also admits wanting to make Oliver feel better, he is not the only one with fears about turning into their parents one day.

"Well look at us, talking about kids and turning into our parents. I do have to admit I'm surprised at the turn that this conversation has taken. I don't completely hate it, it's nice to be able to talk to someone openly and freely about all of this and not have to worry." Oliver says surprised that neither of them has bolted after talking about wanting families. If he didn't already have a massive liking for this women then this conversation would have definitely done it for him.

"Yeah, I have to admit that I am surprised, more about you than myself really. My biological clock has been ticking and also my mother has been bothering me since I left for college about grandbabies. But I have to admit I never in a million years thought that I would ever have been talking to Oliver Queen about kids. Pretty much would have pegged you for a guy to turn in the opposite direction at the mere mention of them." Felicity jokes as she leans up against her kitchen counter well aware that it's after 11 and if she wanted to get in a decent amount of sleep she should probably head to bed soon, however talking to Oliver was actually entertaining and she couldn't get enough of him.

"You know Felicity, men are allowed to like the thought of babies and having a family too ya know?" Oliver teases the smile never leaving his face.

Felicity can tell just by the sound of his voice that he was messing with her and wasn't actually offended or anything. "That is not what I meant and you know that very well. I just meant that you seemed like the forever bachelor type, like it's going to take a certain kind of woman to take you off of the market for good."

Oliver raised an eyebrow intrigued by what she was saying, he would be the first to admit that even a few months ago the thought of having children scared the living shit out of him; in the kind of way that made him run for the hills. But now it doesn't seem so bad, it still seems terrifying but in a totally different way, in a good way.

"Oh? And what kind of woman would that be?" Oliver asks knowing that he was treading in dangerous waters. He knows very well that she wasn't implying that she would be the one to take him off the market but he wanted to know what she was going to say to that.

Felicity blanched and paused not knowing exactly what to say, she could play it coy and cool and flirt back with him or the babble that she is fighting hard not to come out could come out and she could thoroughly embarrass herself in front of him to the point that he will probably retract the date for tomorrow.

"Um...well...ya know. Maybe like a girl who you love and want to spend the rest of your life with. Or maybe you won't end up getting married because ya know marriage isn't for everyone which is totally fine, I totally support that. Unless you want to get married and have a family then that's totally on you, your call because like, not everyone wants kids. But let's be honest, you would have the prettiest babies-" Felicity barely breathes during the entire ramble, she doesn't even know what she said for half of it until Oliver stops her.

"Felicity!" Oliver exclaimed with a laugh evident in his voice, she really did know how to just talk without really thinking of what was about to come out and he had to admit that it was utterly adorable. "Take a deep breath for me, will you? It didn't sound like you even took a breath during that entire ramble."

Felicity blushed, utterly and completely embarrassed that she couldn't just keep everything to herself and just be cool like most girls would. "Sorry, I tend to babble when I get really nervous, I don't tend to filter anything that comes out of my mouth and just let anything and everything that I think just come out."

"Yeah I could tell, it was actually adorable. I especially loved the part where you mentioned that I would have really pretty babies." Oliver teased and Felicity groaned, wishing that she could take back the last five minutes of this conversation and have a complete do-over. She wasn't really doing well over here, she was making a fool of herself left and right.

"Would it be at all possible that we could totally forget everything that was said? I would really appreciate it." Felicity said wanting to beg so that she didn't have to die of embarrassment the moment that she hung up the phone.

"Not a chance," Oliver says with mirth in his voice and Felicity can't help but smile, she can tell that he is really happy just by the tone of his voice and she gets the idea that doesn't happen very often for him.

"I really do have to hang up though, as of fifteen minutes ago I have a hot date tomorrow night and I need my beauty sleep." Felicity comments, even though she wants nothing more than to stay on the phone with him all night like she used to do with her boyfriends in high school.

"Alright, I'll let you get your beauty sleep in but I want it to be made aware that I don't think that you could get any more beautiful," Oliver says.

Felicity blushes the shade of a ripe tomato and puts the hand that isn't holding her phone on her face trying to cool it down. It was such a simple thing to say but it sent her soaring through the roof, that little comment somehow made her feel special. "Goodnight Oliver."

"Goodnight Felicity, sweet dreams," Oliver said and her smile grew a little more before she finally hung up the phone. She did a happy dance in her kitchen accompanied by a squeal of excitement and joy, she was really about to go on a date with Oliver Queen. Her mom is definitely going to kill her when she finds out that this was way more than just one night at his club.

Felicity went to bed feeling amazing, she was riding on the high of a new relationship, where everything is new and exciting and you can't wait to see where things go.

She has a peaceful and dreamless sleep waking up at 10 feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. She woke up putting on some more acceptable sweats to leave her apartment and made two cups of coffee as she got into the elevator and rode it down to the lobby. She walked over to the security desk to see that John was already sitting at and doing a crossword puzzle it seems, at seeing her with a cup of coffee he smiles and take the pre offered cup.

"What's got you so smiley on a Sunday morning? You normally hate Sunday's, saying that they are 'an end to the only enjoyable time in your life.'" John says as he takes a sip of the coffee and closes his eyes savoring every flavor, no matter how much he says that he likes Jitters coffee, Felicity's is always better.

Felicity hesitated to tell him for a few seconds knowing how he felt about Oliver when he saw him for the first time, even if she and John were on good terms it doesn't mean that she's still not nervous to tell him. He was her best friend and even though she sometimes wish it didn't, his opinion meant more than he could ever know.

"I have a date tonight, and before you say anything yes it is with Oliver. But he is a really good guy and really sweet and okay maybe he gets a terrible rap in the media but you shouldn't always believe everything that you read or see on the internet anyways. I just really need you to like him because I don't know what I would do if you didn't." Felicity finished by taking a deep breath and then a gulp of her coffee needing something to distract her.

Diggle sat there for a few moments digesting all of the things that she had just babbled out to him. She is correct and maybe he shouldn't believe everything he reads on the internet but this isn't a feeling solely based on his past indiscretions, it's based on a feeling that he has learned to hone throughout his years in the army. All he wanted for Felicity is to be happy and if her going on a date with senior douchebag then he would hold his tongue and let her make her own mistakes if it comes down to it. He is, however, praying that he is wrong because he doesn't want to have to kick Oliver Queen's ass. That could turn into a major lawsuit for him.

"If he makes you happy Felicity then that's all that matters, I shall keep my opinions to myself," John says taking another gulp of the coffee. He has to concentrate extremely hard however so that it doesn't come back out because he nearly laughs at Felicity's face of shock. It's obvious that she was not expecting him to be so civil about all of this and was expecting him to have some sort of conundrum.

"Is there something wrong with that? Would you like me to give you my opinion again because if you don't want me to hold my tongue I won't" Dig says and Felicity shakes her head as if coming out of a trance and Dig laughs and shakes his head.

"No. Please keep all your opinions to yourself, at least for now while I am getting to know him. I want to form my own opinion on the guy before I let anyone else get into my head." Felicity says and waves her hand next to her head in a circular motion and Diggle laughs but understands nonetheless where she is coming from. He hopes and prays that he is wrong about this guy.

"I get that, and I would like it to go on the record that I don't want to be right about this guy Felicity, I never want to be right because you always end up hurt in the end and that's the last thing that I want to happen. You're like a little sister to me and all that I want for you is to be happy with someone who is worthy of you." Dig says truthfully.

Felicity tilts her head and gives him a warm smile, she wishes that she could give him a giant hug right now. Over the past four years of living in Starling City Dig has always been her favorite person, they are always looking out for each other and she doesn't know what she would do without him by her side. "You truly are an amazing man Dig, Lyla is a lucky woman."

"I'm the lucky one, that woman is a warrior but I do have to admit that most days she really really scares me," Dig says with another smile on his face, one that Felicity has noticed over the years it only shows up when he talks about Lyla in any way.

"I hope to one day find a love like yours, you two truly love each other with everything that you have and I respect that. Even when either of you does something wrong you always find a way to work it out somehow, not a lot of people can say that." Felicity says.

"Well, we did have to get divorced in order to realize how much we actually love each other but I get what you mean," Dig says and laughs as he downs the rest of his coffee silently wishing that he had more.

"I still find that story hilarious no matter how many times you tell it, just the fact that you got married and then got divorced only to find each other and get married again. I feel like you should sell that to Disney or something I really think that you have something there." Felicity says taking another sip of her coffee as she savors it as much as she can.

Diggle laughs and nods as he wraps his hands around his now empty mug and looks down at it trying to picture his and Lyla's love story on the big screen and as a cartoon no less. Even the thought of it sent him into hysterics and made him let out a belly laugh.

Felicity was a bit taken aback at first but then also started to laugh just because he was and then they both ended up laughing until they were crying and they were both red in the face with tears running down their cheeks.

"What's so funny that made you into a ball of laughter all of a sudden?" Felicity asks as she wipes a tear off of her cheek.

"Just trying to picture Lyla as a cartoon Disney princess and me as her prince charming, even the thought amuses me so much that I cannot help but laugh every time I think of kids sitting down to watch that movie," Diggle says finally calming down enough to explain himself.

Felicity laughs herself when she hears him say what had him in a fit of laughter, having heard how they met during the war and got married and then came back and couldn't handle being civilians together then divorced. Then seeing each other by chance one day and falling back in love, it's not the most kid-friendly story. "Yeah, maybe not Disney, but it could totally be an action romance movie."

Diggle nods and hands her back the mug and Felicity takes it knowing that if she is going to run her errands and come back in time to get ready for her date then she needed to get moving. "Alright, I need to go and get dressed for the day, since I spent all of yesterday doing absolutely nothing I need to get some errands done today before my date."

"Thanks for the coffee Felicity, I appreciate the pick me up," Dig says and Felicity nods offering him a smile.

"Anytime Dig, I know how much you like my coffee and figured I would share some this morning," Felicity says and downs the rest of her coffee before it can get cold and heads towards the elevator to go and get dressed.

Felicity gets back to her apartment and throws on a pair of jeans and a clean shirt before grabbing her grocery list and heading for the door. She needed to go grocery shopping for the week and maybe actually get some cleaning done before her date with Oliver tonight. She isn't expecting anything from tonight except for a good dinner and some nice company but it really would be nice to actually bring a guy up to her apartment without overthinking it.

Felicity sighs and grabs her purse before walking out the door trying her best not to think about the mere thought of bringing Oliver home and up to her apartment. She gives Dig a smile and a wave as she leaves the building she goes to get out her keys out of instinct before she remembers that she doesn't have her keys because she doesn't have her car. That's another thing she needs to add to her list of things to do, she needs to pick up her car from the shop because she was too lazy to do that yesterday either.

The mechanic was only ten blocks and it was a beautiful spring day so instead of asking Dig to call her a cab she decided to just walk, she needed to do some cardio anyways, she was insanely out of shape. She heads in the direction of the mechanic and before she knows it she's there and breathes a sigh of relief that she finally has her car back. No matter how beautiful a day walking twenty blocks to work is no fun at all.

She pays the mechanic and tries not to cry while she forks over $200 in cash, she knows that it could have been a lot worse but she just hates taking money out of her savings no matter what it's for. She gets into her car and she can't help the giant smile that appears on her face as she pulls out of the parking lot and heads towards the grocery store.

She spends the next few hours running her errands and cleaning her apartment that before she realizes it's 4:30 and Oliver is going to be here to pick her up in an hour and a half and she's not even begun to get ready.

She looks around her apartment and nodded in approval of her hours of work getting the entire place clean in less than 2 hours. She rushes into the bathroom and plugs in her curling iron and hurriedly starts shaving her legs only managing to cut herself three times.

She gets ready in record time and then walks up to her closet and realizes that she doesn't have any sort of idea what she wants to wear. She looks at the red dress in the back of her closet and sighs wondering to herself if she should wear it. She does look great in it and she always feels amazing and confident in it so why not?

Oliver sends her a text telling her that he is on his way now and she takes a deep breath trying to calm down her rapidly beating heart. She takes the red dress out of her closet and puts it on and picking out her favorite pair of nude heels, she steps in front of her full-length mirror taking one last look at herself and nods. She looks amazing even she can see that, she closes her eyes and takes another deep breath before grabbing her clutch and walking out of her apartment locking up before walking down to the lobby to wait for Oliver to get there.

Once she gets down to the lobby she sees that Dig is still sitting there at the security desk, she knows that he only as a few more hours on his shift but she was hoping that maybe he left early. She walks up to the desk and leans on it sending him a smile.

"Well don't you clean up nice, Smoak. I don't think I have ever seen you try so hard." Dig teases her and she rolls her eyes giving him a laugh as she reaches over the desk and gives him a playful shove on the shoulder.

"Don't be mean Dig besides I am already nervous enough without you making me even more nervous," Felicity says looking out the door even though she knows Oliver is still probably another 15 minutes away.

"Well I mean you haven't been on a date in at least a year, that's bound to make anyone nervous." Dig points out and Felicity looks back at him with wide eyes that are completely filled with fear.

"Was that somehow supposed to make me feel better? You pointing out that I haven't been on a date in almost a year less than 15 minutes before I am about to go on a date with Starling City's most eligible bachelor? How was that supposed to make me feel better?" Felicity asks wanting to smack Dig because now she was even more nervous than she was beforehand.

Dig at least had the decency to look slightly scared of her because of the mix of pure fear and anger on her face. He was joking and he knows that deep down she also knows that, but on the surface, she looks like she could punch him and faint all at the same time.

"Well, it was supposed to make you laugh because I was joking," Dig says choosing at that moment to be truthful hoping to appeal to her good side.

"Well I'm not laughing and I am now even more terrified than I was before, why did I say yes? This is obviously a very bad idea and I am starting to wonder why he would even have wanted to take me out on a date in the first place." He could tell that she was about to have a full-on meltdown, he decides that he needs to put his opinions on the backburner and help her calm down enough to actually be able to go out on this date.

"Felicity, take a few deep breaths, you said yes because you like him and wanted to go out with him and he wouldn't have asked you to go out on this unless he wanted to get to know you better and spend more time with you. Everything is going to work out don't worry." Dig said

Felicity raised an eyebrow at his words and leaned forward feeling his forehead and he rolled his eyes moving away from her touch slightly annoyed at her reaction. "Are you feeling okay? Because Friday night you were trying to get me not to go out with him and convince me that he wasn't a good guy and now you are encouraging me to go out with him?" Felicity asked in a teasing tone knowing that he is trying to help her calm down and not be so nervous. He is trying to be supportive and she really did appreciate it and it in fact was working.

"A guy is allowed to change his mind isn't he?" Diggle asks.

"Not that much and that quickly, there is no way in hell. I know what you are doing and I appreciate you putting your feelings aside to make me feel better, it's sweet." Felicity said with a small smile on her face and that was all Dig needed to see in order to know that he has done something correctly.

"I just want to see you happy and maybe over time once I get to know the guy I won't dislike him so intently. If it means that much to you Felicity I'll do it." Dig says and Felicity nods in appreciation.

She sees Oliver's car pull up in front of the building and she sighs, hoping to get all of the nervous energy out of her system before she gets into that car.

"Thanks Dig, I doubt I will see you before you leave so have a good night okay?" Felicity says as she makes her way towards the door to meet Oliver outside.

"Thanks, you have a good time too, and don't be too nervous, he would be lucky to have a woman like you in his life."

Felicity looks at him with a smile and a twinkle in her eye touched that he would say something like that, it meant more to her than he would ever know. She gave him a nod before walking out of the door to meet Oliver who was leaning up against the passenger side door of his fancy Mercedes. She took a second to appreciate him and how good he looked in a suit.

Oliver did the same thing admiring the red dress that she was wearing and the way that her hair was pinned all to one side, he couldn't seem to peel his eyes away from her. Somehow he managed and gave her a small smile and walked up to her giving her a chaste kiss to the corner of her mouth.

"You look gorgeous Felicity." He whispers in her ear.

Felicity closes her eyes at the husky sound of his voice as a shiver runs down her spine despite it being spring and fairly warm outside tonight. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to find his boring right into hers, she stares back and it gives her uncontrollable butterflies in her stomach.

Oliver takes a step back and smiles at her and opens the passenger side door and bows at her like she is royalty and she can't help but chuckle and shake her head at his cheesiness. She takes a step forward and curtsies in response, who would have thought that Oiver Queen would be such a romantic.

"Thank you, kind sir," Felicity says in a very obviously fake British accent, making Oliver laugh.

"You are quite welcome, your majesty," Oliver says sending her a wink before closing her door and running around to the driver's side.

Felicity watches him and doesn't quite believe that this is her life, she feels like if she pinches herself then she is going to wake up from this dream. She was going out with Oliver Queen and he wasn't anything like what the tabloids made him out to be. He is sweet, funny, kind, caring, and has enough charm to last two lifetimes. It also doesn't hurt anything that he looks like a Greek God that fell from the sky. She still doesn't see what Oliver sees in her but she is most definitely not going to ask any questions and ride this ride until he realizes that she isn't the woman that he thinks she is.

Oliver jumps into the driver's seat and starts the car back up and gives her one of his dazzling smiles that's probably made multiple women drop their panties right where they stand. She would be one of them if it wasn't still light outside and they weren't in a car in front of her building and if she had absolutely no self respect.

"Ready to go?" Oliver asks.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Felicity remarks giving him her own version of that dazzling smile to cover up the fact that the longer that she sits here the more terrified she seems to become.

This is going to be an interesting evening, to say the least.


	5. Chapter 5

Oliver starts driving towards the Italian restaurant that he plans to take Felicity to and the entire drive he is nervous. What if at some point through the date she realizes that she wants nothing to do with him because of who he was and who his family is? It wouldn't be completely out of the question or even the first time since he turned his life around for the better that something like that had happened. The only difference this time is that he really likes Felicity, a lot more than any of the other girls that he has previously dated.

"So where exactly are you taking me? We never really got into the details of this date last night on the phone." Felicity asks turning towards him so that she can get a good look at him while he is driving.

"Well I thought that maybe we could go and get some Italian food at this amazing place downtown and then go dancing, I know this great jazz club that's tucked away in the city that not many people know about," Oliver says with a smile on his face, hoping that she will like what he has planned.

"Well I love Italian, but I haven't ever been dancing in a jazz club before so that will definitely be something new for me. I can't promise that I'm a good dancer but I can promise that I always rise to whatever challenge is before me." Felicity remarks and smiles slightly nervous about the dancing part, the only dancing she has ever done is in a dark club where no one can really see her. This will definitely be something new.

"You seemed like a good dancer the other night at the club." Oliver remarks with a sly grin on his face and Felicity laughs.

"I highly doubt that you were paying attention to my dance moves that night at Verdant. I could tell by the look on your face that your mind was in a different place." Felicity commented.

"Would you think anything less of me if I said that your thoughts are indeed correct?" Oliver asked as he reached his hand across the center console and grabbed her hand. Felicity met him halfway and stared down at their intertwined hands for a moment and gave his hand a gentle squeeze before answering.

"No, because my mind was no were in the realm of paying attention to the way you were dancing. However, I was thinking about your body just in a completely different and more inappropriate way." Felicity said looking at Oliver and making it obvious that she is checking him out. He squeezes her hand and she can't help but laugh as he squirms under her attention.

Her mother used to always tell her to fake it until you make it and that is exactly what she is doing right now. She is hoping that if she fakes the confidence and fakes being completely comfortable and not nervous that at some point throughout the night those things will actually happen and then she can be more of herself. Maybe she won't be afraid to let him see the vulnerable side of her at some point.

"That's so unfair to say right now while I am currently driving and trying to focus on the road so we don't die in a fiery car accident," Oliver says overreacting by a lot. Felicity laughs and shakes her head, he really is a drama queen.

"Wow. If a little comment like that threatens our safety that much I can only imagine what will happen if I say something even more salacious." Felicity says biting her lower lip knowing exactly what she was doing and it took everything in her not to burst into laughter.

"Fe-li-ci-ty." Oliver practically growls. Felicity can't exactly explain what it does to her body but the closest things she can say to describe said feeling is like her whole body was singing or glowing.

"So what did you spend the day doing? Anything exciting happen at the club?" Felicity asks as she not so suddenly changes the subject.

"Well, that was a subtle subject change if I have ever heard of one." Oliver teases and squeezes her hand as he pulls up to the valet of the restaurant.

"Oh I could go back to the previous subject that we were talking about, I'm sure that the valets would love to hear about that." Felicity chuckles as one of the valets opens her door letting her out of the car. She makes her way out of the car and and watches as Oliver hands over the keys and they make their way into the restaurant.

Felicity finally notices that they are at the new Italian restaurant Mozzafiato that had just opened within the last month and was nearly impossible to get a reservation at especially with 24 hours notice.

"Reservation for Queen," Oliver says to the hostess as he grabs her hand once again and Felicity can't help but notice that the host who can't be more than 19 was giving her a death glare. Under any other circumstances, she would cower under the girl's gaze but she did feel extremely confident knowing that Oliver had chosen to take her. That he actually wanted to be here and spend the night with her and that gave her the confidence boost that she needed not to be scared of some jealous hostess.

"Right this way Mr. Queen." The hostess sent Felicity one last glare before showing them to their booth. It had high backs and was towards the back of the restaurant which gave it the feeling that they were completely alone. The hostess set down their menus and then disappeared leaving Oliver and Felicity on their own.

"Well, it's obvious that someone is not happy that you are out on a date," Felicity comments as soon as the hostess was out of earshot a small smile on her face.

Oliver gives her a confused look for a few seconds before it dawns on him what she is talking about. "Honestly it has become such a norm for me I don't notice it, I'm sorry if it bothers you."

Felicity tilts her head and gives him a small smile, this man was apologizing for something that isn't even remotely in his control and it lights her heart up and makes her swoon more than she already was. "Thank you, but there's absolutely no need for you to apologize at all. It's not your doing, I guess it just comes with the territory of dating Oliver Queen." Felicity says leaning forward on the table onto her forearms while looking at Oliver.

"Most girls would be taken aback by something like that but with you...you don't even seem remotely bothered by it. I have to say that I am impressed." Oliver comments also leaning forward onto the table so there is less than a foot of room between them.

"Well I'm not most girls, I knew what I was getting myself into the moment I said yes to this date with you. Hell after one night of making out with you in your club I was the head story in most tabloids and my picture ended up on TMZ. Having a hostess giving me a death glare is the least of my concerns at this point." Felicity commented giving him a sly smirk and a wink before slowly leaning back and taking a quick look at her menu knowing that he was watching her.

Her heart felt like it was about to fly out of her chest with how fast it was beating, she had to admit even to herself that she was doing well tonight, had barely babbled or said anything stupid or embarrassing thus far. Felicity continued looking at her menu and she noticed that every few seconds Oliver would look back up at her and she smiled.

Without looking up or missing a beat, she said, "Take a picture, it'll last longer. Plus you're less likely to give yourself a headache from all the looking back and forth you are doing."

Oliver smiled and shook his head as he let out a laugh, he decided to do just that. He took out his phone and snapped a picture just as Felicity decided to look up at him with a smile on her face. He looked back down at his phone and he had to admit that it was a gorgeous photo.

"Hey!" Felicity said when she realized that he had taken a photo of her, she didn't mind but she would at least like to be made aware when she is being photographed.

"You're the one who said to take a picture, besides it came out beautiful," Oliver said.

Felicity was about to respond when their waitress came up to the table to take their order. "Hi there, my name's Alena and I will be your waitress this evening. Can I start you off with something to drink?"

Oliver looked to Felicity and she shrugged, she wasn't very picky when it came to wine so it didn't matter to her. "I'm not very picky about wine, I'll have whatever you're having."

Oliver gave her a curt nod and looked up to the waitress with a smile on his face that didn't even seem to phase the waitress and Felicity was impressed, to say the least.

"Could we have a bottle of the best Cabernet Sauvignon?" He asked and the waitress nodded with a smile on her face as she looked between the both of them quickly.

"Yes, of course, I'll bring that out shortly," Alena says as she leaves the tables and Felicity watches her go.

"What made you pick that bottle?" Felicity asked out of curiosity.

Oliver shrugged with a mischievous smile on his face, "Nothing in particular, the main reason is because it is the only bottle I know how to pronounce right."

That made Felicity chuckle and shake her head as she went back to pursuing the menu, she did her best not to pay attention to the prices on the side because she had faith that Oliver wasn't going to make her split the check.

"Well based on the wine you picked I think I am going to go for some good old fashioned lasagna," Felicity said settling down her menu and looking up at Oliver.

Oliver lifted his head to look at her and raised his eyebrow, "Based on the wine I picked? Do we have a sommelier on our hands?" Oliver teased.

Felicity rolled her eyes and chuckled shaking her head, "Absolutely not, one I don't have that kind of time on my hands, and two I worked in a place similar to this through some of college after being a barista. I picked up a few things along the way that stuck with me and one of those things was what wine paired with what sauces."

Oliver had to admit that he was impressed not many women he met knew that much about wine, not even the rich women who are idly bored on a daily basis and probably have the time and resources to learn all of that doesn't even know.

"I'm impressed, so what kind of sauce goes with the bottle of wine that I chose?" Oliver asks setting down his menu to give her his full attention.

"Red sauce, nothing else really goes well with a Cabernet Sauvignon because of the rich flavor," Felicity says as if it's the most natural thing to say in the world.

"Well, then I will get something with a red sauce seeing as the professional says its the best." Oliver teases Felicity and she smiles with a shake of her head.

"What are some fun facts that not a lot of people know about you?" Felicity asks leaning back in the booth to get a better look at Oliver.

"So we have moved to this part of the first date? The awkward getting to know you questions?" Oliver asks jokingly as he also leans back in the booth and watches Felicity.

"I mean considering we don't actually know each other all that well it's kind of a given that we should do the awkward get to know each other thing. Since you're so reluctant I shall go first," Felicity smiles.

Oliver is about to respond when she starts speaking and he stops short with a small smile on his face, he can already tell that this is going to be an interesting night.

"I grew up in Las Vegas, I have a huge fear of Kangaroo's, and I graduated from high school when I was 16." Felicity said the first three things popped into her head.

"You graduated high school at 16?!" Oliver asked incredulously, he barely graduated high school at 18.

"Yup." She said popping the p with a proud smile on her face, she loved telling people that and seeing the looks of shock on all of their faces.

"I also graduated from MIT with my Bachelor's and Master's by 20," Felicity said and seeing Oliver's eyes bug out of his head even more.

"Wow. I could barely graduate university with a Bachelors in business at 22, let alone a Master's as well and doing it all in only four years while working. I don't know how you did that, did you ever sleep?" Oliver asked he had so many questions to ask her, but mainly he was just impressed with her skills.

"Honestly I don't know how I ever survived in college, because on top of that I also went partying. I think I survived off of Monster and Caffeine, there is no other way that I would have survived. Looking back, I don't know how I am still alive with everything I put into my body." Felicity said as the waitress came back with their wine and two glasses.

Felicity thanked god that the wine was finally here so that she could calm some of this nervous energy that was still coursing through her body, no matter how comfortable she was becoming with Oliver she was still nervous.

"Here's the wine for you and are you two all ready to place your order?" Alena asks.

Felicity looks to Oliver and he nods as he orders first, "Can I have the Spaghetti Carbonara, please."

Felicity looks up to Alena and smiles, "Could I have a piece of Lasagna please."

Alena writes down both of their orders as she takes their menus and gives them a polite smile, "Yeah, of course, I will have that out shortly for both of you."

Oliver looks back over to Felicity the moment that the waitress leaves and gives her a smile. "What brought you to Starling City all the way from Boston on the opposite coast?" Oliver asks already vaguely knowing the answer to this question from the creepy google search he did on her after they had first met.

"I got a job offer that I couldn't seem to be able to turn down from Palmer Tech, they offered me, assistant director of applied sciences. I am the youngest to have the job, the people you met at Big Belly Burger are members of a team that I am spearheading." Felicity explained taking a long swing of her wine, it was another thing that she was extremely proud of. All of the things that she has accomplished in such a short amount of time because of all the hours of hard work that she has put in. She will brag to anyone that wants to listen to what she has done with her position and the designs that she and her team have come up with to help the world become a better place.

"Whoa, that's amazing. Honestly, the work you all are doing must be important, that's really impressive. I would ask what you're working on but I doubt that you could or would be able to tell me," Oliver says.

"You would be correct, even if you weren't Robert Queens' son, you never know who's listening and frankly we can't afford to have someone else steal the idea and then develop it before us," Felicity says suddenly wishing that she could share what they were working on with him, just wanting to be excited with someone other than her coworkers about what she is working on.

"That's completely understandable, I probably wouldn't even understand what you were talking about anyways. When I was with you and your coworkers at Big Belly Burger and you were talking about some new development in some technology I understood maybe 10% of what was being said." Oliver said with a laugh and took a sip of his wine.

"Don't worry most people who aren't in the same field as us understand what we are talking about most of the time. Besides you were respectful and asking questions trying to actually understand what was going on which is more than I can say for most." Felicity said remembering how impressed she was with him for doing a simple thing like sitting with them and trying to actually understand all of the tech mumbo-jumbo that they were throwing around.

"Well I was slightly interested in what you all were talking about and I wanted to know more and actually comprehend what was going on. It's what anyone would do really." Oliver said as if his last statement were true when in fact it was the opposite, most would dub them nerds and try to segway their conversation but Oliver actually made an effort to contribute.

"Enough about me what about you? What made you want to open up a night club and in the Glades of all places?" Felicity asks taking another sip of her wine as she looked into his eyes.

"Well mainly to piss off my parents that was the deciding factor to be completely honest, they wanted me to take over QC but they never really asked what I wanted to do. So I rebelled in the form of a night club which is now running very smoothly and has been making a steady profit over the past couple of years since it has opened. They keep trying to tell me that no matter how successful it is it's not a proper business venture, I just continue to laugh in their faces as I continue to make a profit." Oliver says and Felicity can't help but notice the spark in his eyes when he talks about Verdant and what he has done with it.

"Just because it's a night club that doesn't mean it's not a proper business, forget what they say, if you are proud of it then don't let your parents or anyone else try and put you down. You are obviously good at what you do or the club wouldn't be thriving like it is at the moment. It's bringing a lot of business to the Glades and also jobs, that's another thing to be proud about." Felicity says and Oliver looks at her with a look on his face that she can't exactly read but it makes her heart skip a beat.

"Thank you, Felicity, that means a lot to hear someone say that about everything Tommy and I have worked for the past few years. Tommy's father just pretends that the club doesn't exist which helps and doesn't in some ways." Oliver says finishing off his glass of wine and pouring himself another.

"Do you like doing the business side of things instead of managing the club at night? You seem like the brains behind the operation." Felicity says and laughs taking a small sip of her wine starting to feel a lot more relaxed.

"Yeah I would say so, I have grown out of the party stage and none of it appeals to me as much as it once used to. Tommy on the other hand still finds some sort of enjoyment out of the party scene. The business side of things is more my style which also fuels the fire when it comes to my parents wanting me to take over the company. They keep saying that if I can run a nightclub and I enjoy that then why can't I come and take over as CEO as if they are the same thing." Oliver says with a bitter laugh and Felicity begins to realize how much of an act Oliver puts up for the sake of the media and publicity.

The man that is currently sitting in front of her with the defeated look on his face is not the same one that appears in the tabloids and on TMZ. This man is hurt and angry and it almost seems that even with everything he has seemed to overcome or accomplished he seems to be disappointed in himself for everything that he still hasn't been able to do. The look on his face nearly breaks her heart, he doesn't deserve to feel this way just because he isn't doing what everyone else has envisioned for his life.

"Could you ever see yourself eventually becoming the CEO of QC someday?" Felicity asks out of pure curiosity as she finishes off her wine and pours herself another glass.

Oliver takes a minute to think about the question, first starting off by staring at her as if trying to figure out if there was a hidden meaning behind her question. She would be offended if she understood his hesitance behind what the question could actually mean. There have probably been many women who have only gone out with him under the pretense of him heading the company one day and becoming a millionaire.

He looks out the window as he continues thinking and watches the pedestrians pass by, was that something that he wanted? It was a valid question that he had somehow never really given any thought to, he had only continued to work at the club to piss off his parents but he can't do that forever. He definitely wanted to at some point move on to something bigger and better, something that could help this city become the place it once was, a better place.

He looks back to Felicity and sighs still not completely sure about the answer to her question, "Maybe. I know that I can't work in the club forever, it's never been a forever job to me. I want to do something bigger with my life, make this city a better place, I walk through the Glades after I finish work some nights and it hits me how dangerous it actually is at night. I want to do something to help with that and maybe that something is taking over at QC, but I want to make sure that I am doing it because it's what I want not something that my parents want."

Felicity nods, everything that Oliver said made sense and she understands where he is coming from completely. She reaches across the table and grabs his hand in a sign of solidarity and comfort.

"Maybe try telling your parents what you just told me, that you could see yourself taking over the company but not until you are sure that it's something that you want. It might placate them until you are ready and they might stop badgering you about it." Felicity suggests giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

Oliver nods at her suggestion, knowing that in any other situation it might work but it has been 5 years since he graduated from Columbia. He is 27 and his father is getting restless and keeps telling him how irresponsible and lazy he is for not stepping up to the plate for once in his life. He was well past the point of trying to placate them, his father wants to be able to step down from the place of CEO.

The waitress comes over with their food and it gives Oliver a reprieve from talking about his sad excuse for a career and his complaining about his parents. She sets each dish down in front of them and Felicity's mouth instantly begins to water as she looks down at the dish in front of her. She takes her hand back from Oliver to reach for her fork ready to dig into this amazing looking lasagna.

"Anything else I could get for you at the moment?" Alena asks and they both shake their heads.

"Alright enjoy and just wave me down if you need anything." She says as she gives them a polite smile and walks away from them leaving them to their dinner.

They both took a few bites of their entrees nearly forgetting that the other was there because of how amazing the food was, the only sound coming from their table was the delighted moans that they both occasionally let out.

"I do have to say that every review that I have read about this place has been correct, I would do just about anything for this lasagna," Felicity commented taking another sip of her wine finally starting to feel it take some effect on her mind and body.

Oliver chuckled and shook his head as he downed his entire glass of water and Felicity watched sightly impressed as a waiter came up almost immediately to refill his glass. Oliver downed half of his glass of water before setting it back down.

"You weren't thirsty were you?" Felicity joked taking another bite of her lasagna

"Well I do need to drive us to the jazz club yet and I can't exactly do that with all that amazing wine in my system," Oliver said taking another bite of his pasta.

"You are right, this food is to die for, I can see why it has so many five-star reviews," Oliver says and Felicity nods in agreement.

"Where is this jazz club? Is it far from here?" Felicity asks taking the last bite of her lasagna, her only complaint is that for what that cost she barely got any food.

"It's actually not too far from your building as a matter of fact," Oliver says also taking the last bite of his pasta as well, disappointed that there wasn't more for him to eat.

"Wanna share a dessert? That pasta did absolutely nothing to fill me up." Felicity asks in hopes to make this night go as long as she can possibly make it, work tomorrow be damned. The last thing she wanted was to say goodbye to him, it had been a while since she had been on a date that had gone this well and it felt really great. She wanted to make this last for as long as she possibly could.

"Yeah, of course, I'm barely full as it is either and if we are going to dance the night away we are going to need fuel," Oliver says making both of them laugh.

"Alright, but fair warning I am not the best dancer and will probably end up stepping on your feet most of the time," Felicity says leaning forward onto her forearms on the table so to get closer to Oliver.

"All you need is a strong partner to lead you besides I wore my steel-toed boots tonight." He gave her a wink and she laughed while propping her head upon her hand as she continued to stare directly into his eyes.

"Have I mentioned how gorgeous you look tonight?" Oliver asks.

"You may have mentioned it once or twice, but I never tire of hearing it." Felicity joked with a light laugh bubbling out of her lips.

"Well you really do look radiant tonight Felicity, I feel like I have to be one of the luckiest guys in the world at this present moment," Oliver says and he leans forward mirroring her pose with his head resting on his fist.

Felicity immediately blushes from the compliment, yes she has been told by guys that she was beautiful or gorgeous. But never has a guy told her that he felt lucky just to be with her, she suddenly felt like maybe just for this moment that all of her insecurities and self-esteem issues had just melted off of her shoulders. That none of it matters because she was here with Oliver and she suddenly felt incredibly lucky to be there with him.

"You really know how to make a girl feel special, like she's the only thing on the planet worth anything," Felicity says needing to say something instead of sitting in silence thinking about how amazing this man is.

"I meant what I said, it's not just some line that I'm feeding you. I really do feel incredibly lucky to be with you." Oliver said every bit of sincerity he could muster was in his voice and in his eyes, he needed her to believe everything that he was telling her.

Felicity didn't know what to say so she did the only thing that she could think of to do and that was to kiss him. She looked down at his lips for a split second before closing the small distance between them and kissing him. She put everything that she couldn't put into words into that kiss hoping that he just somehow knew what she was trying to say. He pulled away after a few seconds but not before giving her a few pecks on the lips before fully pulling away from her to look at her smiling face again.

"I feel lucky too, we haven't known each other that long but I feel so incredibly comfortable with you and like I can trust you. I haven't ever let myself be in a relationship long enough that I feel comfortable, I normally run in the other direction but you make me want to open up and be vulnerable and somehow that doesn't terrify me." Felicity admits and begins to feel very vulnerable and honest which isn't something she has ever truly felt in a relationship before.

"Well at least we are on the same page, I feel like I should be scared too but I'm not. It just seems easy with you." Oliver says and it makes Felicity smile as she continues to look him in the eye feeling the now familiar feeling of butterflies in her stomach.

The waitress walks up just as Felicity is about to respond, "How was everything tonight? Can I interest you in any dessert?" She asks picking up their plates and looking between both of them.

"Yes please," Felicity says and Alena sets down the dessert menu down for them both of them to take a look at. Felicity picks it up and looks through it before handing it to Oliver and he shakes his head.

"I'll have whatever you want," Oliver says and it makes Felicity smile and looks back up at the waitress to place the order.

"Can we have one slice of tiramisu?" Felicity asks.

"Yeah, of course, I'll have that right out for you," Alena says taking the menu and their plates leaving them alone once again.

"So what made you want to go into the tech field?" Oliver asks out of curiosity.

"I have always had a love for computers ever since I was a little girl, I was constantly taking computers and electronics apart when I was little just so I could look inside and see what they looked like. I haven't ever wanted to do anything else so when I got a full ride to MIT I ran with it and didn't look back." Felicity says looking down at her hands that were resting on the table, this was bringing up all kinds of memories from when she was younger that she never let herself think about. Memories that involved her dad.

Oliver could tell that there was something wrong and took both of her hands in his and waited until she looked up at him, "Are you okay? You have this sad look on your face."

Felicity sighs and wonders if it was maybe too soon to share all of that baggage with him, then again he shared about his problems with his parents. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before looking back at him before looking back down at both of their hands.

"My dad was really into computers as well, he taught me a lot of what I know about building them, it was our thing that we would do together. When I was eight however he left me and my mom, I later found out that he is on the run from the FBI because he hacked into their database and didn't cover his tracks. I think when I was younger I thought that maybe if I was smart and got into STEM that maybe he would come back." Felicity says with a shrug hating that she still sought out approval from a man that obviously never cared about her.

Oliver watched her for a few moments just studying her and being able to see plain as day that this still upset her more than she wanted it to. "I'm sorry that happened Felicity, I know that probably doesn't help any but he obviously doesn't know everything that he missed out on. You are successful and the assistant director of applied science of a major corporation, you should be proud of everything you accomplished despite him."

Felicity looks back up at Oliver and gave him a small smile and squeezes his hands, he is right, it doesn't help a whole lot, but it's still a good feeling to know that someone thinks this highly of her. She is proud of everything she has done even if sometimes she does tend to wonder what her father would have thought of all of her accomplishments.

"Thanks, it's really sweet that you think so highly of me," Felicity responds with a laugh.

"I mean I think about what you do and I get a headache because I know that I couldn't even begin to understand it or how to do any of it," Oliver says still impressed.

The waitress comes back with their dessert and the bill and sets them both down on the table in front of them, "Here's your tiramisu for you and I can take the check whenever you are ready."

They both give her a nod and a smile, Felicity immediately picks up one of the two forks and takes a bite of the desert. She closes her eyes and falls back into the booth, "I don't think I have ever put something in my mouth this good before."

Oliver gives her a curious look and Felicity opens her eyes a blush evident on her cheeks, "I am aware of what I just said but I stand by it because that is amazing."

Oliver laughs and shakes his head taking out his wallet to put one of his many credit cards down to pay for the bill. Felicity watches him slightly curious about how much the meal costs knowing that it couldn't be cheap.

"So what's the damage? I know that this couldn't be in any way cheap or an inexpensive date." Felicity says only slightly curious but also guilty that she is making him pay for it all on his own. Don't get her wrong she is grateful but she also knows that she would never be able to afford any of this.

Oliver sets down the bill before taking a bite of the desert himself, "I have had more expensive dates if that's what you're asking." Oliver says elusively not wanting to tell her how much dinner costs mainly because he didn't want her to feel obligated to pay.

"Oh I don't doubt that, is it true that you took a girl to Paris on a date?" Felicity asks in a teasing tone with a smile on her face taking another bite of the tiramisu.

"Yeah...that wasn't one of my finest moments, my parents were not happy in any way. I was 17 when I did that and the girl I took on that date was 16, her parents were not happy at all. I also technically stole the company jet which my father needed the next morning to fly to Tokyo for a business meeting which he missed because of me." Oliver says a guilty look on his face even after all of this time.

"Yikes, you seem like the wild child that every parent dreads having once their child gets into their teenage years." Felicity teases and Oliver laughs right along with her.

"Yeah you aren't wrong, I can admit it now that I was a terrible child and I am surprised that they didn't send me to military school at some point," Oliver says taking another bite of the desert and Felicity does the same. The waitress comes by and picks up the check and quickly cashes them out bringing the bill back telling them both to have a great night.

Oliver signs the receipt leaving a cash tip before looking back to Felicity, "Ready to go?"

Felicity nods and slides out of the booth standing up and finally feeling the effect of the two glasses of wine that she had tonight. She sways slightly and smiles at Oliver seeing that he notices her swaying a little bit. He puts his hand on the small of her back and leads her out of the restaurant handing the valet the ticket and they both wait patiently for the car to be brought around for them.

Oliver tips the man before opening Felicity's door for her sending her a quick wink making her giggle and blush as she got into the car and watched Oliver walk around the car and get into the driver's seat. He pulled out of the parking lot and starts to head in the direction of the jazz club.

"You still up for going dancing? We could just have a drink if you really don't want to dance." Oliver adds as he grabs her hand letting them rest on her lap, with her free hand she absentmindedly draws patterns on the back of Oliver's hand.

"I'll still go dancing I just can't promise that I will be any good at it," Felicity says with a laugh causing Oliver to smile.

"Don't worry I'll lead you through it, you can't be that bad," Oliver says pulling into a parking spot on the street in front of what looks like a dingy building that she can only assume is the jazz club. He was right, this place wasn't far from her apartment, it was about two blocks away.

He leads her into the club and she is taken aback, it looked like an old speakeasy from the '20s. The waitstaff and bartenders and even the band were all dressed in period costumes, out of all of the years that she had lived here how had she never heard of this place?

Felicity and Oliver spent the next few hours doing nothing but dancing and having the occasional drink. Felicity spent nearly the entire time with a radiant smile on her face and a laugh coming off of her lips, she hadn't ever had this much fun on a date before. She also had to admit that she was impressed by Oliver's dancing skill, she never would have pegged him for being someone that could dance like this. Twirling her around the dance floor like it was nothing and the easiest thing in the world, he made her look like she actually knew what she was doing.

A smile never left Oliver's face the entire time they were in the bar, he had taken plenty of women here before he would admit that but he hadn't ever had this good of a time with them. Felicity just knew how to put a smile on his face and make him laugh like he hadn't in years, she made him forget all of his responsibilities and just helped him relax.

By the time that the two of them were ready to call it a night neither of them was okay to drive anywhere. They walked out of the club with smiles on their faces, Felicity looked up at Oliver and just couldn't bear to say goodbye to him just yet.

"You know my apartment isn't too far...you are more than welcome to crash there if you don't want to call for a car," Felicity suggested knowing very well that the two of them would more than likely not be sleeping but she couldn't seem to care in the slightest.

"I don't want to impose." Oliver trying to at the very least be a gentleman before going home with her.

"You're not imposing I am offering, I'm less than two blocks away. An easy enough walk from here, plus I am not really ready to say goodbye just yet." Felicity admits against her better judgment but the alcohol is taking over her brain causing her to make decisions she wouldn't normally make like invite Oliver over.

"You make fair points," Oliver says and Felicity grabs his hand and starts to pull him in the direction of her apartment building and he goes willingly without a second thought.

They stumble all the way to her building laughing uncontrollably, they stumble drunkenly into the building and into the elevator and Felicity pressed the button for her floor. Once the door closes there's an instant atmosphere change, for the first time that night they are completely alone. They look at each other and the air between them seemed to crackle with sexual tension.

Neither one knows who moved first but suddenly they were kissing as if their lives depended on it, both of their hands roaming the body of the other. This kiss was like the other night in the club, it was messy and carnal.

When the elevator door opened up they both stumbled out into the hallway, this time not because of the alcohol but because neither of them had their eyes opened so neither of them could see where exactly they were going. Finally, Felicity opens her eyes and sees her door and fished her keys out of her purse as Oliver started to kiss his way down her neck, sucking on her pulse point and she knew that he was going to leave a mark but she couldn't care less because it was making her feel all kinds of amazing things.

She finally after many attempts gets her door to open and they nearly fall into her apartment slamming the door shut. Immediately they both begin to shove articles of clothing off of the other's body, needing to feel closer to the other and feel the skin to skin contact. They found their way into Felicity's bedroom and fell onto the bed, Oliver kissed down Felicity's jaw and making his way down her neck and then onto her chest before he stopped himself. Which he could barely do as he listened to her preen and moan.

He wanted to make absolutely certain that this was what she wanted, they were both fairly drunk and not thinking straight but he had enough of a mind to stop himself before things got too far and out of hand.

"Felicity are you sure you want to do this?" Oliver asks.

"Why are you not sure?" Felicity asks out of breath and wiggles a bit underneath him so that she could get a better look at him which did not help Oliver or his situation at all, she was creating a lot of friction and it was becoming extremely hard to concentrate.

"Oh, I am completely sure," Oliver said with the most conviction in his voice that Felicity has heard him speak with all night.

"Well then what are you waiting for?" Felicity asks with a smile on her face and Oliver was taking that as his go-ahead that this was what she wanted. He smiled and began kissing her again and let his hands roam all over her body.

The rest of the night went on in the same fashion, them making love to one another without giving much thought of what came after this. Or even worse what the consequences might be if they weren't completely careful.


	6. Chapter 6

Felicity still feels like the night before might have been some really weird lucid dream that she might have had, she went out on the best date of her life last night and then brought the guy home and had the best sex of her life, not just once but three times.

Both of them fell asleep around 3 am completely forgetting that it was Sunday and both of them had to be into work in the morning. It didn't matter, they were blissfully happy snuggled up in Felicity's bed basking in the serenity of the moment.

That is why when the alarm clock went off the next morning at 6 am Felicity groaned and slammed her hand down on the alarm clock to shut the wretched thing off. At least this time she remembered everything that happened from the night before and thank goodness that she did because that was some of the best sex that she ever had, she would say it over and over until she actually believed it. All of the rumors that she had heard involving Oliver Queen and sex were true, he was a god. There was no other way to describe it.

She rolled over in bed and snuggled back into Oliver's chest aware that she needed to get up and take a shower and start getting ready but being snuggled up against Oliver's chest beat making it into work on time. Oliver, however, had a completely separate opinion on the matter.

"Nope, we gotta get up, don't snuggle back into me. If you get up right now I'll go get us both coffee and breakfast from a good place I know a couple of blocks away." Oliver said sounding like a reasonable adult and it made Felicity hate him slightly but she never moved. She was exhausted from only sleeping three hours and from all of the exertion from the night before, a little hungover from the alcohol that she consumed and also somehow feeling blissful which was a new feeling for Felicity so early in the morning.

"Nooooooo, five more minutes." Felicity groaned as she snuggled as far as she could into Oliver's chest which only made him laugh and slip out of bed. Felicity opened her eyes and watched as his sculpted and very naked body walked away slowly gathering his clothes that were scattered all over her apartment. That was definitely a view that she could get used to waking up to every morning.

Her eyes suddenly bugged out of her head as she realized what she just thought, the rest of her life?! She hadn't even known the guy a week and she was fantasizing about forever? What the hell is going on with her? She was never the type of girl to think things like that and let herself become completely enveloped in whatever guy she was dating, but she can already start to feel it. That pull that she assumes most people feel when they find someone that they really like and want to get to know better so they spend every waking minute together and suddenly become that couple that everyone finds annoying.

Wow, it was way too damn early for thoughts like this, the point being she was never the type of girl to get lost in a guy and here she is finding herself starting to do just that and it slightly terrifies her that it was that easy.

Oliver walks back up to her room dressed in the suit that he had from the night before, he leans on the doorframe and smiles at her and how adorable she looks. Last night might have been amazing but it wasn't one of his proudest moments. They were both very intoxicated and acting on hormones and he feels like he might have taken advantage last night and was hoping that she wasn't angry with him. He wished that he would have been able to have been more of a gentleman and just controlled himself more. Oliver pushed off of the doorframe and walked over to the bed sitting down on the edge of it by her hip.

"You know if you don't get up soon you're probably going to be late," Oliver said a smile on his face.

"I could just play hooky and give myself a three day weekend, I'm too tired to go into work and actually function," Felicity commented already past the point of being tired, she could get up out of bed right now but she is comfortable and is choosing not to.

"If I come back from getting breakfast and you're still in bed I'm drinking your coffee and eating your breakfast." Oliver threatened with a smile on his face.

Felicity shook her head and moved to sit up, she pressed the sheet to her upper chest so that she wouldn't give Oliver a show. "There, you happy? I'll get out of bed once you skedaddle."

Oliver laughs and shakes his head, she definitely was one of a kind that's for sure. "Ok, what would you like for breakfast?"

"Coffee with three creams and three sugars and a breakfast burrito, I'm not picky. As long as it doesn't have nuts in it, I'm deathly allergic." Felicity said and Oliver nodded.

"Noted. I shall be back soon with reinforcements." Oliver said and leaned forward giving her what he thought would be a quick kiss but she stopped him before he could move too far. She framed his neck with her hands and deepened the kiss and he let her because he couldn't resist the way that the kiss made him feel on top of the world.

He pulled away and shook his head with a laugh and gave her a quick peck before getting up off of the bed before she could distract him again. "I'm leaving before you distract me even more."

Oliver walked out of the room and Felicity laughed as she listened to him leave the apartment, Felicity couldn't help the smile that was on her face as she got out of bed and took a quick shower. The smile continued to stay on her face long after Oliver had left, sure she had never brought a guy home with her on the first date and slept with him but there was a first time for everything and she was most definitely not regretting this. She got dressed and did her hair and makeup in record time and even got the chance to pick up from the mess that was last nights shenanigans.

She looked at her watch and it was 7:30, she was beginning to wonder where Oliver was when the phone that was by her front door that was connected to the security desk began ringing.

"Hello?" Felicity answered

"There's a guy down here saying he is here to bring you breakfast, shall I send him up?" Dig asked she could tell that he was trying very hard not to judge her but she wasn't an idiot, she could hear the tone of his voice loud and clear through the phone.

"Send him up, be nice to him John. He's actually a good guy." Felicity says and she faintly hears Dig tell Oliver that he was free to go up.

"Mhmm, he used his good ole rich boy charm on you, Felicity," John commented and Felicity sighed not really wanting to hear it.

"John, I'm not one of those girls that easily falls for that okay? He really is a good guy believe me on this, please?" Felicity asks as she unlocks the door knowing that Oliver will be up here any minute.

"Alright, fine," Dig responds reluctantly.

"Good, I'm hanging up now," Felicity says hanging the phone back up in its rightful place. Oliver chooses that moment to walk into the apartment with a bag of delicious smelling food and two cups of coffee. Felicity takes in a deep breath smelling breakfast with her eyes closed.

"Oh, I could get used to this, helloooooooo gorgeous," Felicity says as she takes the bag from Oliver's hand and takes out her breakfast burrito talking to it. Oliver shakes his head as he watches the scene before him.

"What am I chopped liver?" Oliver asks

"Might as well be because this is _amazing, _where is this from?" Felicity asks taking another bite and letting out a moan not being able to believe that she was eating something so delicious.

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Oliver responds half offended that she thought that he would give up that kind of information so easily.

"Oh, so you're a magician now? The club life just not doing it for you anymore?" Felicity asks and sends him a wink as she takes a sip of her coffee and sets down the burrito to grab her jacket and gets her bag so she could head out the door.

"Didn't I tell you? I have been lying to you this whole time, I have always been a magician." Oliver says pulling a coin out from behind Felicity's ear and she immediately stops what she is doing to stare between him and the coin silently wondering how the hell he just did that and why she is so utterly surprised that he did.

"Wow...I don't know whether to be impressed or weirded out." Felicity admits with a small smile on her face.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Oliver says helping her into her jacket and she offers him a grateful smile before grabbing her coffee, burrito, and keys.

"We really need to get going if I am even going to be remotely on time for work today. Do you need a ride to your car, it's on my way to the office anyway." Felicity offers and Oliver smiles gratefully at her offer.

"That would actually be amazing thanks, I need to meet a couple of guys at the club too," Oliver adds hoping that it's not obvious that he is lying and would much rather be spending as much time as he could with her.

"Alright well let's get going then," Felicity adds choosing not to point out the fact that she can tell that he is lying, she finds is endearing.

They walk out of her apartment and into the elevator in comfortable silence, normally this would be incredibly awkward but for some reason, neither of them could put their finger on why they felt the opposite. Oliver even was bold enough to grab her hand causing Felicity to blush and smile up at him. Never in her life has she blushed so much in the past few days, and it was all because she liked him. For the first time in years, Felicity was finally starting to like someone again, and it felt fantastic.

They both walked into the lobby hand in hand and Felicity nearly tripped when she saw John sitting at the front desk, somehow in the short amount of time since Oliver had come back she had somehow forgotten that John was on duty today. There was nothing wrong with that she just hated getting the stink eye from him, he may have said that he would support her but she can tell that he doesn't quite approve of everything that's going on.

"Morning John," Felicity says with a nod.

"Morning Ma'am," Dig responded with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, would you mind going out and getting my car for me? It's just around the corner and in the parking garage, you can't miss it." Felicity asks Oliver so that she could have a moment to scold John for being a huge blithering idiot. She hands Oliver the key's with what she hopes is a smile on her face and not a grimace.

Oliver can tell that something was up between them but he wasn't about to question it, John looked like he could murder him. Granted Oliver was in amazing shape and knew some martial arts but that didn't do anything for the terrifying look Dig was throwing him ever since he came out from the elevator first thing this morning.

"Yeah, sure no problem," Oliver says taking the keys from her and giving her a quick peck on the cheek before leaving.

Felicity watched him leave knowing that she was most definitely going to be late for work but she was the boss of her own team and didn't actually care at the moment. She looked back at John and tried her best to hold in her temper.

"Look I know that you view me as a little sister and I get that but you _do not_ in any way shape or form get to judge my choices or decisions. I really like him John and that's the only thing that should really matter, I don't need you sending him dirty looks or being all judgy. I would really like it if my best friend could just be happy that I think I might have found someone worth fighting for." Felicity finished feeling revitalized and rejuvenated for sticking up for herself.

John looks at her trying to get a read on her besides the obvious fact that she wasn't too happy with him, he could tell that she was smiling more and did seem happy. He knew that he had been acting too overprotective and that was in no way fair to anyone. He needed to cut it out and just be nice to Oliver for the sake of Felicity and be happy for her.

"I'm sorry Felicity, I promise that I will at least make an effort to at the very least get to know him. I swear to god though, if he hurts you…" John doesn't finish the sentence just at the sheer thought of himself beating Oliver Queen to a pulp.

"I give you full permission if that ever happens," Felicity says hoping that John wasn't right and that Oliver wasn't going to leave now that he had sex with her. She doesn't exactly have any reason not to trust him but she doesn't know him well enough to trust him like that.

Felicity sees Oliver pull up outside the building and gives John a smile, "Have a good day, see you after work."

"You too," John says hoping that all of his judgments on the man weren't correct because at this point the last thing that he wanted was to be right about this and see Felicity be hurt again.

Felicity walked outside and Oliver got out of the driver's seat so that she could get in and gave her a quick peck on the lips before running around the car and getting into the passenger's seat.

Felicity put her stuff in the back seat and took the final bite of her burrito before getting behind the wheel of her mini cooper. She drove Oliver to his car in silence thinking about what has occurred over the span of a few days. She met Oliver by chance in his club, had an amazing time with him, ended up in the tabloids, met Oliver by chance again, spent most of the weekend talking on the phone with him before he asked her on a date, the date goes amazing and he ends up spending the night. It all seems so fast to her and now she was starting to get nervous if the pace of things was making her second guess things and become anxious.

They pull up to his car and Oliver looks over at Felicity a bit nervous by the look on her face, she seemed to be pondering on something and it didn't seem to be good.

"Are you okay? Ever since you got in the car you seem off." Oliver asks hoping to get an answer from her but not expecting one.

"Yeah, I'm fine just thinking. I had a great time last night, like...a really great time. I'm glad that you asked me out," Felicity admitted feeling rather vulnerable.

"I'm glad that I did too, I had a great time as well. I don't think that I have ever connected with someone so quickly before." Oliver says looking down at his watch realizing that they were both about to be late for work.

"I have to go though the guys are going to kill me for being late," Oliver said and gave her a kiss on the cheek before getting out of the car and bending down to say something to her, "I'll call you I promise."

Felicity smiled and gave him a chuckle, "I won't hold my breath." She gave him a wink before he shut the door and got into his own car.

Felicity sped off only now noticing that she was supposed to have been at work 10 minutes ago. She couldn't stop thinking about Oliver the entire drive there, the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his sister or just about anything that he was passionate about or his smile. She also couldn't help but think about how they spent all of last night and the things that they did to each other, she needed to get this all out of her system before she showed up to work flushed for thinking about inappropriate things. Not that it really mattered because Curtis and Caitlin were sure to have told Barry and Cisco about her date so there was no way that her whole team didn't already know at the very least that she went out on a proper date with the man.

She pulled into the parking garage and ran to the elevator and was hoping that somehow no one important noticed her tardiness, granted she had never been late a day in her life so she was allowed to be late at least once and not have to worry about the consequences. She walked through the lobby saying hi to everyone before heading up to her floor already mentally preparing herself for the number of questions that she was about to be bombarded with the moment she walked through the doors.

She walked through the doors to the lab where she and her team had been working and they all looked up at her and she pretended to ignore the beady little eyes she felt staring at her. She set her stuff down on her desk taking a giant gulp of coffee to try and get her through this. She stayed silent as she waited for one of them to give up and just ask her why she was late or what happened last night.

She looked up and found both Curtis and Caitlin staring at her but Barry and Cisco pretended to be engulfed in whatever was on their laptops which she assumed weren't even turned on. She watched them all for a few minutes and realized that they weren't going to try and ask anything and they weren't ever going to get any work done unless they talk about this so she might as well get it over with now while she still had caffeine running through her veins.

"Alright ask me whatever you want, I don't promise to answer anything and then after five minutes we forget about all of this and then go to work." Felicity put her foot down, their work was a hell of a lot more important than her love life.

"Are all of the rumors true? Is he really as great in bed as I hear that he is?" Curtis blurts out and blushes profusely, Barry and Cisco look uncomfortable as Caitlin laughs and nods also slightly curious herself about the answer to that question.

"I would also like an answer to that question," Caitlin remarks and raises her hand with a smile on her face.

"First off, how do you know that I even slept with him last night? Maybe we chose to go our separate ways at the end of the night." Felicity says trying to cover but she knows that it's no use, she was always a horrible liar anyways.

"Well you were late this morning and you are almost always the first one here in the morning, second you have the 'i had sex last night' smile on your face, and thirdly you have a pretty impressive hickey on the side of your neck." Caitlin pointed out and Felicity nearly dropped her coffee as she covered the exact spot that she knew Caitlin was referring to with her free hand. She was going to kill Oliver, but also herself for not seeing it while she was getting ready and for not covering it up with makeup.

"I do not have the 'i had sex last night' face'" Felicity said avoiding to comment about the hickey not wanting to talk about it at all.

"Oh you so do, you look all relaxed and even have this glow about you. You look like Barry did after he spent the night with Iris for the first time." Curtis commented making everyone in the room laugh except for Barry.

"I was not that bad," Barry said slightly annoyed that he was being called out so quickly.

"Barry you had a permanent smile on your face for three days, you were bad," Cisco said and they all laughed even harder nodding along with Cisco.

"At least I didn't show up with a giant hickey on my neck, let's not forget who this is about right now." Barry pointed out and they all nodded in agreement remembering the point of this conversation.

"What was the date like? Where did he take you?" Caitlin asked needing to know every single detail about this date which she was building up in her head to be amazing.

"He took me to that new Italian place Mozzafiato and let me tell you the food was to die for even if the portions were crazy tiny. Then we went dancing at this really nice jazz club that is down the block from my building. We both had a little too much to drink so I offered that he come and crash at my place and then one thing lead to another…." Felicity trailed off leaving it at that, they didn't need to know any more than that but her not saying anything more let their minds imagine what she was trying not to admit she did.

"Felicity Smoak! I cannot believe you brought a man home after one date." Barry said, this was an entirely new side of her that he had never seen before. He had to admit that he was a bit surprised but also a tiny bit proud of her.

"Stop judging me Mr. I kissed Iris without even telling her I liked her, you have no room to talk about moving things too fast." Felicity defended hating that this was something they were actually discussing. However, she also knew that if she let them get it out of their systems now then eventually they wouldn't care and things could go back to normal and it wouldn't matter.

"Ok, the only thing I want to know is if all of the rumors are true, is he as good in bed as everyone says that he is?" Caitlin asks even though she has a fiancee but Felicity doesn't judge because if the roles were reversed she would be curious too. She would want to know if everything that everyone said about Oliver Queen the sex god of Star city was true or not.

Felicity looked around wondering if she should even satisfy the question with an answer just for the fact that she felt like she was oversharing on a subject that they didn't need to know about. She looked to Caitlin however and she got the sudden urge to tell her mainly because she never really had a friend to have girl talk with. She suddenly felt the want and need to share with Caitlin what she wouldn't normally share with anyone except maybe her diary from high school.

"Yeah, the rumors are all true, the man is truly amazing in bed, he does this thing where-" Felicity starts to say as she moves closer to Caitlin as if she were telling her the secret to the universe but she was interrupted before she could even finish.

"Alright nope, can we please refrain from talking sex talk in here. I would like to not have these images in my head about you and Oliver Queen, thank you very much." Cisco says trying not to look at Felicity which just made Felicity laugh while blushing at the same time. If she thought she was embarrassed by being asked these questions Cisco looked mortified just having to listen to her answers.

"Yeah, that was definitely more than five minutes anyway, so the subject is now off-limits," Felicity said starting to move towards her desk to get to work.

"You'll tell me about that thing though right?" Caitlin asked looking desperate to know and Felicity smiled finally getting why all the girls in her high school loved having girls nights and talking about boys. She was suddenly starting to get that feeling with Caitlin.

"Oh yeah most definitely, I'll tell you at lunch," Felicity said sending Caitlin a wink before actually getting down to business.

The day was spent like most others except today they had a breakthrough unlike any other, Curtis finally figured out how they could power the chips for the duration of the patient's life by using a tiny battery. It was the kind of breakthrough they had been looking for, something that they could finally start working on and making prototypes in order to get human trials started. This could potentially change people's lives in ways that they never thought would ever have been possible.

They all went home that night on a high that none of them ever wanted to come down from, they have been working for months trying to come up with a plan to figure out how to power the biostimulant. Once they figured that out they knew that most everything would fall into place and it wouldn't take long before they were on the fast track to being published in medical journals and actually start helping paralysed people walk again. It was a feeling that Felicity never thought she would get and now that it's here she feels like she's floating on air.

She got home and shared the good news with John about everything that was happening and she was so excited that she cut their talk short saying how she had to go upstairs and start coding everything out and get a headstart for tomorrow so that she would be prepared and jump right into things.

She walked into her apartment and changed into her sweats and sat down at her desktop and began working throwing caution to the wind as she turned on some Beyonce as she jammed. She was so caught up in everything that she completely missed all of Oliver's texts and calls asking her how her day was.

Oliver was suddenly hit with this wave of emotions, he finally knew what it felt like to be one of the girls that he said that he would call and then just never does. Logically he knew that she wasn't ignoring him, there was just no possible way. They had a connection he knew it, he felt it. There was something there that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he knew that she wouldn't blatantly ignore him. Then again he didn't know her that well really and maybe by the time she got to work she had enough of him and decided that she didn't want anything to do with him.

He was really letting this get to him, she was all that he could think about today and he wasn't even ashamed to admit it, he really liked her and could actually see this going somewhere, but that was only if she was interested too. She was interested too right?

It went on like this for a few days where he wouldn't ever get a response before he finally gave up and decided that if she wanted to talk to him then she would. If she hadn't answered by now maybe the anxious and self-conscious little demon inside his head was right. She didn't like him and never did, she just went out with him for a nice expensive meal and that was it.

* * *

Felicity got home late on Friday night and walked through the door to see John sitting there and it put a smile on her exhausted face, she walked up to his desk and leaned against it with a very tired smile on her face.

"Well you look utterly exhausted, I assume that things are going well with the microchip?" John asked still not exactly knowing what it was that she was working on, she had explained it to him many times but she was speaking in geek language, which he never seemed to understand no matter how hard he tried to.

"It's not a microchip it's an implantable bio-stimulant and it's going well, we have finally started to make progress on the software in the chip. It has taken me a while but I have finally gotten the coding right but it's going to take me another couple of months to really get it correct so that we can start trying to produce them." Felicity explained and she could tell by the look on Dig's face that he actually understood what she had said.

"That's great Felicity I am really happy for you! That sounds like amazing work that you are doing I am proud of you." Dig said making Felicity smile at him blushing at the compliment.

"Thanks Dig, I am really proud of myself, I'm proud of the entire team, mostly Curtis for figuring out the problems with the battery. We are finally moving towards something and we are working our asses off to make sure that it works." Felicity says rubbing her face and lets out a tired sigh utterly exhausted and ready to sleep for at least 12 hours.

"So how's Queen doing? I haven't seen him around here since that little randevu that you two had." Dig said wiggling his eyebrows, he might not be Oliver's biggest fan but he wouldn't continue putting him down in front of Felicity. He was trying to get used to the idea of his little sister dating the fuck boy of the city, but he could tell that she really really liked him so he put his differences with him to the side for good this time to prove that he was supporting her.

"Oliver? _Oh my god!_ Dig I completely forgot." Felicity's eyes bugged out of her head as she felt her pockets for her phone she took her phone out so fast it nearly tumbled to the ground. She opened her messages app which had 20 messages on it already and saw that some of those had been from Oliver.

"Dig...I ghosted him. I have been so busy with everything with the bio-stimulate that I started ignoring everyone to get everything right. He probably thinks I hate him or something, I probably ruined this relationship before it even became a relationship for me to properly ruin." Felicity rambled and Dig laughed at her shaking his head as he did so.

"Felicity, calm down and take a breath for me please, just tell him what happened and everything that was going on. If he doesn't understand then whatever, but I doubt that he will be angry, you said before that he was interested in your work and wanted to know more about what was going on. Maybe this is the time to let him in a little bit on what's going on in your world." John said helping her to see things rationally, she was grateful for having such an amazing friend in him.

"Yeah, you're right, I am sure he will understand what happened. I'm going to call him once I get upstairs and eat something." Felicity said and John gave her a sympathetic smile. He could tell that she had been up for a long time without sleep because her concept of time was completely off.

"Felicity, it's midnight. Why don't you wait until tomorrow morning after you have at the very least had a few hours of sleep and then text or call him in the morning? If you call him now you'll stay up all night and you know how you get when you don't sleep."

"Loopy and unable to do anything especially code properly," Felicity comments with a yawn making John smile and nod, this poor woman was running herself into the ground to make sure that this project was the best that it could be and he admired her for it but it wasn't doing her any favors.

"You're right, I know that you are. Okay, I am going upstairs, hell I might even fall asleep in the elevator I have been up for nearly 18 hours. My body crashed a while ago and I have basically been running on fumes." Felicity said taking a step away from to security desk sending Dig a tired smile before throwing her hand up in a makeshift wave as she walked towards the elevators.

"Goodnight John." She yelled and pressed the elevator button.

"Goodnight Felicity, go right to sleep once you get up there, don't stay up working on anything," John yelled after her knowing what she was probably bound to do the second she got into her apartment. Go right to her desktop and start coding some more and then she would stay up all night instead of letting her brain rest.

"Yeah I hear you, I promise I'll sleep," Felicity says getting into the elevator and leans up against the back wall and closes her eyes, she was in dangerous territory of actually falling asleep in the elevator.

The car dinged on her floor and she sleep walked out of the elevator and down the hall to her apartment door trying to open it without even getting out her keys to unlock the door. She stared at her door for a few seconds before realizing that she needed to get out her keys to successfully get into her apartment. She dug her keys out of her bag and slide them into the lock effectively opening the door and shuffling inside.

She dropped her things in her front hall and went straight to her bedroom falling onto her bed utterly exhausted and not even being able to think about going into her office and starting to work again. She could barely even think about going through her night routine and changing into comfy pajamas. Sleep was her friend which she needed to visit at the moment because she was utterly exhausted.

She fell asleep nearly as soon as her head hit the bed and she snuggled on top of her comforter. She dreamed of code all night as her brain rests for the first time in five days. She was excited to wake up tomorrow and have a break, she loved her job don't get her wrong but when she did it in spurts like this where all she did was focus on work and lose herself forgetting about everything else she ran herself dry and she wasn't able to function.

She woke up at noon the next afternoon feeling great and refreshed and relaxed. She really needed that rest, she hated that she wasted half of the day but she would get over it. She checked her phone and it reminded her that she needed to call Oliver and tell him what happened to her over the last week. She also needed to apologize profusely for not even giving him some sort of warning.

She hopped into the shower and took a long relaxing shower getting out feeling even better and more relaxed than she had before. She got dressed in a pair of leggings and really ratty old MIT hoodie as she picked up her phone and pulled up Oliver's contacted slightly ashamed and embarrassed for unintentionally ghosting him. She didn't mean to and she was hoping that he will understand.

She hit the call button without a second thought, he picked up after a few rings and his voice sounded more surprised than she would have liked to admit, it made her feel even more guilty.

"Well hey there stranger, I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to call. Kind of thought you used me for a nice dinner and sex before ditching me." Oliver commented sounding angry but he was laughing and Felicity didn't know how to interpret that.

"I know I am so sorry I have an explanation if you want to hear it. I promise ghosting you was not my intention in any way." Felicity said hoping that he would hear her out because she couldn't stand the thought of him being that upset.

"Let's hear it then, I feel like it will be a good and reasonable excuse," Oliver commented making Felicity feel even better that maybe he really won't be that angry with her.

"Well on Monday me and my team figured out the most important and integral part of the project we are working on and the entire week has been spent coming up with prototypes. We are still figuring out where in the body we would place it in order for it to work and I have been coding nonstop all week to see what I could do to start making the chip actually function. I really hope that you understand, everything that has happened over the past week was unintentional. Any consequences that come from this I will take full responsibility for, something that you need to know is that when I get started on a project it's hard for me to stop working on it until I get it right. I tend to get into this bubble where I just work constantly until I can't seem to function and then I just sleep for a few days and take a break and then go back to normal. I know that it's not an excuse but I just wanted you to know." Felicity rambled hoping to whatever God was up there that he would understand and that she didn't pull, for lack of a better term, an Oliver Queen by not answering any of his texts.

"Well after that I don't think that I can be angry with you, none of this was intentional and you didn't mean to do what you did. Plus I would be a terrible person if I was angry with you for trying to make the world a better place with your technology. Plus I would be a hypocrite because I have done that to a ton of girls." Oliver said not being able to even be the slightest bit angry with her at all, she was trying to better this world and he understood that, now that he knows what will happen when she gets invested with work he can be better prepared for the next time that it happens.

The next time that it happens? Wow, Oliver you really are seeming to get ahead of yourself, she isn't even your girlfriend and you are acting as if she were. He has changed a lot over the past couple of years and the thought of maybe actually getting into a committed relationship appeals to him. His thoughts are very far off from the marriage and kids track but eventually he might get there.

"Now I know for next time this happens that you aren't ignoring me that you are just going geek crazy at work," Oliver says knowing exactly what he was saying and that it would either make her laugh or get a small adorable rise out of her and he was willing to take the risk of getting yelled at.

"Wow there is a lot to process in that one sentence, first going geek crazy is definitely not a thing but I am definitely about to start using that term from now on," Felicity said laughing and walking into her kitchen to attempt to make herself some lunch, she just went grocery shopping so she at least has options. She gets out some chicken and begins to make some cajun chicken pasta mainly just because it's the one thing that she can do well.

"Also next time? What makes you so sure that you are going to be around the next time I go geek crazy as you now call it?" She asks with the phone on speakerphone as she continues cooking while talking with him.

"Well if I'm being completely honest I was just being presumptuous but now that I am thinking about it I should have kept the thought inside my head," Oliver says leaning back in his chair, Felicity was effectively helping him avoid all of the work that he needed to be doing for this fundraiser that Tommy was throwing for CNRI next week. Somehow all of the planning and preparations have been put upon him, but he didn't mind any distraction that was in the form of Felicity Smoak

"No don't apologize for speaking your mind, I certainly don't whenever I do. It makes life more fun if you just roll with it and pretend that you didn't say it or just take credit for it and own it. Besides, I like the idea of you being around the next time that I go coding crazy, I need someone to reel me in and none of my friends from work can do that because they are egging me on." Felicity says what's on her mind, that she wants him around the next time that she goes crazy. It's a nice thing to think that she would have someone there with her to tell her to take a break, it also doesn't hurt that he is so attractive and charming that she wouldn't mind just staring at him for the rest of time.

"The rest of time huh?" Oliver asks cheekily with a laugh.

Felicity immediately stops what she is doing to close her eyes at the realization that she said all of that out loud, she had to take her own advice and just own it. Yes, she said that she would love to just look at him for the rest of time, so what? She is positive that he has probably heard something like that or has looked in a mirror and knows that he is very attractive.

"Yes the rest of time, got a problem with that?" Felicity asks flirting with him proud of herself for not trying to blubber her way out of that predicament.

"Not at all, I wouldn't mind looking at you for the rest of time either," Oliver says liking this little game that they are playing.

"Oliver Queen are you proposing to me?" She joked with him and laughed until she realized that there was a choking sound on the other side of the line. "Oliver?"

"N-no, I...I wasn't proposing not in any way." Oliver stuttered for the first time in his life, in the back of his brain he knew that she was joking and didn't mean to terrify him so much but at the forefront of his mind he could seem to understand that.

"Oliver I was only joking, I am in no way ready for marriage either so you don't need to worry. But it's nice to know that we are on the same page although you seem a lot more terrified of the idea of marriage than I am." Felicity joked as she continued cooking as if she wasn't on the phone with Oliver joking about marriage with him.

"Some part of me knew that you were joking but I was slightly nervous that you thought that somehow I was actually proposing and I was slightly terrified," Oliver admitted his heart rate and blood pressure beginning to lower and slow down.

Felicity laughed and shook her head thinking that this entire situation between them was hilarious, she continued teasing him about his fear of commitment as she cooked. Most of their phone call went the same until the very end Oliver had enough of her teasing.

"You're completely wrong I am not afraid of commitment, marriage yes, mainly because there's this idea surrounding marriage where you have to have kids and that also terrifies me but I am not afraid of commitment thank you very much and I resent the fact that you think that I am." Oliver joked as he was counting the alcohol in the stockroom.

"Oh yeah? Prove it." Felicity said sitting down to her kitchen table to eat her lunch finally.

"Prove it? Okay, Felicity, would you like to be my girlfriend until the two of us either grow sick of each other or in the very distant future decided to stare at each other for the rest of our lives?" Oliver asked without even really thinking about it, he just did it half to prove her wrong and the other half actually wanting her to be his girlfriend.

Felicity froze with the phone to her ear and her mouth agape not knowing how exactly to respond, was he doing it just as a joke or was he being serious? There was silence on the other end and she noticed that he also was suspiciously quiet and she couldn't quite gauge what was going on.

"I can't tell whether or not you are being serious or just saying that to try and prove a point because for one that's a cruel joke to pull on someone and two that's not proving anything. The only thing that it's proving is that you can ask a question." Felicity joked trying to joke herself out of this situation that they had both gotten themselves into.

"I wasn't joking, I mean I 20% meant it as a joke and that's what gave me the courage to ask but I meant it. Do you wanna be my girlfriend?" Oliver asks again this time more serious and Felicity can tell that he meant every word that came out of his mouth.

She nodded before realizing that he wasn't in her apartment and couldn't see her, "Yeah I would love that Oliver."

Oliver smiled like an idiot not being able to contain it, Felicity was his girlfriend. After only knowing each other a week and a half she was going to be his girlfriend and he couldn't be any more ecstatic about it.

"Great, well now that dilemma is solved how long do I have to stick this out until I prove to you that I am not afraid of commitment?" He joked making both of them laugh, Felicity nearly choking on her bite of pasta that was currently in her mouth.

"Excuse me but do you think that you are going to get some sort of prize if you stay in this relationship for more than two seconds? I have half a mind to come down to Verdant and smack you," Felicity said laughing and shaking her head at his antics.

"I mean I am not expecting a prize but it would definitely be nice." Oliver joked looking at his watch seeing that he had a meeting soon and that he was going to have to let her go even though he really didn't want to.

"How about you get to still be my boyfriend _and _I promote you to the best boyfriend ever?" Felicity asks in a joking tone but also being completely serious.

"Sounds perfect, I do actually have to let you go though, I have a meeting with some vendors and I am actually trying to not always be late to everything that I go to," Oliver said checking his watch again.

"Alright, I guess I can let you go if you must be someplace," Felicity said with a sigh, letting him know that she wasn't a fan of this new development.

"I'll call you later?" He asked more a promise than a question.

"Yeah okay I'll be waiting by the phone like a sappy '90s rom-com." Felicity joked and Oliver shook his head knowing that even if nothing came of this relationship that he was going to love every minute of being around her.

"Bye Felicity," Oliver says

"Bye Oliver," Felicity responds before they both hang up. There's a smile on Felicity's face that she can't seem to shake knows is going to be there for the rest of the day.

Oliver Queen was now officially her boyfriend and she knew that she was going to be riding this high for at least the next week.


	7. Chapter 7

The next two and a half months Oliver and Felicity spend every waking moment that they can with each other. It is a lot easier when Oliver is working mornings at the club and they get off at the same time, they spend most of their time either out on the town going on dates or at Felicity's apartment.

The implantable bio-stimulant was running as smoothly as it can in the beginning stages of the development process, Felicity was spending a lot of time at work but was cutting back and taking care of herself thanks to Oliver.

So when she got sick with what she thought was the flu it seemed very strange, she couldn't stop throwing up for a week. Everything made her nauseous and wanted to vomit, she wasn't running a fever which she found strange. The only symptom that she had was throwing up...then it hit her.

"Holy shit this cannot be happening," Felicity whispered to herself she slowly got up so as not to jostle her stomach in the fear of ending back up on the floor in her bathroom. She got her phone to check the app that tracked her period and saw that she missed three periods and she knew that there was no coincidence. There was no way that she had been under this much stress to be three months late.

She thinks back to that first night with Oliver, they were both insanely drunk and she knows that leading up to that night she had been really bad at taking her birth control, but the bigger question is did he ever use a condom any of the three times that they had sex that night?

"No. There is no way, there have to be many reasons to miss a period right?" Felicity asks no one in particular, the first person that she wants to call is Oliver but he is currently at work and she doesn't want to bother him if nothing is wrong.

Felicity takes a shaky breath and walks over to her front door throwing on a pair of tennis shoes and grabbing her wallet and keys as she walks to the elevator and takes it down to the lobby in a daze. She really cannot believe that this is happening to her, or even happening at all, that she could have let this happen. She was always so careful, always taking her birth control and making sure to have condoms just in case, especially recently. She and Oliver had been like two horny teenagers, they couldn't seem to keep their hands off of each other.

The elevator stops in the lobby and she steps out but immediately stops when she sees John sitting down at the security desk looking to be filling out a crossword from last week's paper. What would he say if he found out what was going on and going through her mind and the fact that a baby might currently be occupying her womb? She continues to stare at him and takes a tentative step forward hoping that he won't see her and that maybe she can sneak out without him noticing but she knows that's not going to happen. The man was in the special forces in the Army, he noticed everything. As soon as Felicity moved he looked over at her and he could immediately tell that there was something going on with her.

"Hey, what are you doing up I thought that you had the flu?" John asks abandoning his crossword in favor of looking at her and watching her like a hawk.

"Yeah, I uh-I do…I am just going out for...some...orange juice. Yeah I am fresh out and I could really use some, that seems to be the only thing that I can keep down." Which wasn't a lie, it was the only thing that she could keep down and she was almost out.

"Oh okay, are you sure that you are okay to go out with how sick you are?" John asks trying to get more information out of her because she's acting weird, she also hasn't ever looked sick once this week. She keeps saying that she can't keep anything down and that she has the flu or some stomach bug, yet she doesn't even look remotely sick.

"I'm sure, I need some fresh air anyway I think that it will do me some good," Felicity says taking another few steps towards the door in the hope of escaping from the third degree from John.

"Ok, if you're sure then I won't keep you," John says and Felicity nearly sighs out of relief but stops herself so that she doesn't spook John and he starts questioning her even more.

She walks out the door and turns left heading towards the bodega that she knows sits on the corner there that will indeed have what she needs. She can't even say it to herself, how was she supposed to tell other people if what she thinks is true is actually true. She takes a deep breath trying to calm herself down in hopes that maybe she won't spiral in front of Edwardo, the owner of the bodega, who doesn't deserve to witness that.

She walks in and smiles at Edwardo behind the counter, she walks to the back of the store where she knows the orange juice is and then goes to the counter knowing that she is going to have to ask him to get her a pregnancy test down from the shelf.

"Hello, Miss Felicity just this for you tonight?" He asks in a thick Hispanic accent and she almost starts crying at how nice he is, whenever she comes in here he always smiles and asks her how her company is going even though she has explained to him that she doesn't actually have a company after a while she stopped correcting him. This was another thing that had been happening more frequently, mood swings which she didn't see anything wrong with but she just felt bad for Oliver because he was getting the brunt of it. The more that she thinks about it, the more her being pregnant makes sense for why she was acting and feeling the way that she had been.

"No. Um...could you please get me down three pregnancy tests?" She asks tears spilling out of her eyes when she speaks the word pregnancy out loud. She was still in disbelief that this was even happening, there was no way, this all had to be a dream.

"Oh, you pregnant? Congratulations! How far along?" He asks trying to be nice and she knows this so she tries her best to hold in her sobs.

"I'm not sure yet." She says and promptly pays before taking her bags from him giving him a watery smile as she moves to leave needing to get out of there as soon as possible. She needed air and she needed to think, she was always the kid that needed to see things logically and the only logical explanation for everything that was going on was that she was pregnant but at the moment she was hoping that for once she wasn't right about something.

She walked into the lobby and gave John a smile but her face was patchy and she had tears running down her cheeks and her smile looked more like a grimace than anything else. She chose not to say anything to him and just get into the elevator, she didn't have the energy to say anything to him at the moment. It was 10 pm and she was having a mental breakdown plus she was 90% sure that she was pregnant so she had plenty of reason to be exhausted.

She walked into her apartment and shut the door immediately taking a gulp of the orange juice straight from the bottle and she instantly felt better by just putting something semi-nutritious into her body. She took a steadying breath and took another gulp only letting herself focus on what it felt like to drink the orange juice and how it tasted. The action was effectively grounding her and she was able to take a good gulp of air into her lungs that helped to clear her head.

After 15 minutes of drinking nothing but orange juice, she went to the bathroom and peed on a total of five pregnancy tests and waited the allotted five minutes to see what they all said. But once that timer went off all she could do is stare at the side of them, she couldn't seem to get herself up to look at what the actual screens had to say because deep in her gut she didn't need to look at them to know what they said.

She stood up anyways and looked down at all five of them and they all said the same thing, she was pregnant. What the hell was she supposed to do now? She wasn't ready to be a mom, she could barely take care of herself on a good day and on a bad day, she would barely eat or sleep.

She was _finally_ starting to feel good about the direction that her life was going and now this happens? This just doesn't seem fair in any way, she has an amazing boyfriend, amazing friends, her career was about to really take off with this implant and now she is pregnant?

Ironically after both her and Oliver have a talk about what they wanted from their futures and they both said that they wanted kids but not for years down the road. Doing all of this while pregnant put a whole different spin on the definition of irony.

She lets a few stray tears make their way down her face until suddenly she starts sobbing and sinks down to the floor with one of the tests clutched in her hand still not being able to comprehend what was happening. She just kept repeating to herself over and over that she was pregnant, that there was a baby currently taking up room in her womb.

The only one who she thought might actually be excited about this was her mother and that sent her on a whole other spiral because she wasn't even sure if she wanted this, did she? Her life was finally in a good spot and she loved how everything was going but adding a child onto everything that was happening didn't seem to fair to her or the baby.

Her breathing became shallow and she felt like she was about to faint, she started seeing dark spots and it felt like her chest was getting tight and she couldn't breathe. She suddenly shot up and raced out of her door and down to the lobby not even stopping to out on shoes in her panic. She chose to take the stairs because she didn't think that she could be trapped in the elevator for more than ten seconds without fainting. She finally made it to the lobby and she could hear Dig asking her what was wrong but it felt like she couldn't hear anything, like she was underwater.

She rushed out of the door and starting taking gulping breaths of the fresh summer air, it felt good but she still felt like she couldn't breathe, she bent down with her hands on her knees trying to be able to breathe and let air into her lungs. Nothing that she did helped her to regain her breath, she didn't even see John rush out after her until she felt the strong hand on her back and she turned sharply into him and just started sobbing not even telling him what was wrong but he held her nonetheless.

He rubs her back and tells her that everything is going to be okay even though he feels like he might be lying to her, this seemed really serious but he had to stay strong for her because it seemed like she really just needed someone to hold her up while she was breaking down.

"Felicity? Hey, what's going on? Is someone hurt?" He tried to goad out of her but she just sobbed even more and shook her head in response to his questions. She pulled away and took another breath, slowly but surely starting to calm down and her heart no longer felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.

"I'm pregnant." Felicity gets out and hands him the test as another sob escapes her lips, she still can't really believe that this was happening.

John looked at the piece of plastic that just had the word 'PREGNANT' in bold lettering and he couldn't actually believe that she was pregnant, she was always so responsible. But this wasn't the end of her life, things could still go the way that she wanted them to. She could still make her dreams come true while being a mom right?

"Are we excited about this?" John asks wanting to make sure that he acts and responds correctly so that he doesn't spook her in any way.

Felicity lets out another sob and covers her mouth not even knowing how to answer his simple question. She wanted to feel excited but she wasn't, she knew that there was a good chance that she never would be. But also there was a small part of her that was a tiny bit excited about all of this, at least some part of herself that pictured herself with a child and a smile on her face.

"I don't know John, I really don't know what to feel except terror and- and anxiety. The idea of getting this taken care of is running through my head and just...I could live the rest of my life never mentioning this to anyone and have kids when I am ready. But I know that I couldn't do that, I believe that women should be able to choose but that's not something I can picture myself being able to live with for the rest of my life. But I don't know if I am ready to be a mom, to be responsible for a tiny human for the next 18 years of both of our lives. I just.." She sobs and nearly collapses onto the cement but John catches her and makes sure that she doesn't actually fall down.

"Have you talked to Queen about this? Does he know?" John asks as he rubs soothing circles on her back.

"No. I only just found out myself, I haven't told him and I don't exactly know when I am going to. We are both so busy with work that we haven't had much time for just us recently." Felicity says taking another deep and calming breath letting her heart finally relax, she finally feels calm. She takes a step away from John and he hands her back the test and she stares down at the little piece of plastic that has changed her life forever.

"For what it's worth Felicity I feel like you would make an amazing mother," John says and Felicity looks up at him without so much as a smile on her face and just stares at him for a few moments before looking back down at the piece of plastic.

"Thanks, I don't exactly believe you but I appreciate the sentiment," Felicity says closing her eyes and taking another deep breath trying to calm herself down and it works. She looks out onto the street and sees the cars pass by and in the distance, she can hear sirens and cars honking. It's her favorite part of the city for some reason, all of the noise, it's the sounds of life to her and it always without a doubt seems to calm her down.

"You should tell Queen as soon as you can, what he decides to do is going to define how you handle this," John says being completely honest with her.

She stares up at him knowing that he is right, how Oliver handles this is going to define how she does. If he decides to bail then she is going to have to accept the fact that she is going to be a single mom. But if he decides to stay then things might be slightly easier on her, at least she will know that she won't have to worry about the money aspect of things.

"I know I just, I selfishly don't want things to change between us, I know that things are going to change drastically but I don't want them to. We have only been dating for two months Dig, we talked about what we wanted from life and all of that and we both admitted that we wanted kids but not for another couple of years, so how am I supposed to tell him that I am pregnant?" Felicity asks finally able to think things through logically and clearly since she found this news out.

"You just tell him, Lis, I know that's easier said than done at the moment but you can do it. Besides it's not something that you can exactly hide from him forever, he is going to notice eventually when your belly starts to grow," John says telling her the truth that she doesn't really want to be hearing right now.

"Yeah, I know. I wish I could call him right now but I know that he can't leave the club unsupervised and this isn't something I want to tell him over the phone." Felicity says running a hand through her long blonde hair, a nervous habit that she has recently developed from Oliver.

"I'm feeling a lot better John, thank you for talking with me and helping me calm down. I don't know what I would do without you." Felicity says moving to give him a hug and he hugs her back which helps her feel like things are going to be okay no matter what happens. She has a village by her side that is going to help her raise this baby no matter what happens. She just really hopes that this village of hers is going to include Oliver in it.

* * *

_A week and a half later_

Felicity has been sitting on this pregnancy for a week's time and it has been one of the hardest things to do. Ever since she and Oliver had gotten together and started their relationship he tends to stay at her place when he is on nights because it's just easier than driving all of the way to his parent's estate on the outskirts of the city. This makes it hard for Felicity to keep things from him when he is staying with her.

Granted most days she is up and gone for work before he gets up and by the time she comes home from work he is gone to start his day. So it's not like she has had to lie to his face about any of this but on the weekend she had so many opportunities to tell him and she just didn't, and not because she didn't want to either. She just couldn't find the right words or the courage, she spent most of the weekend sleeping because she is exhausted from making a tiny human inside of her.

But now they are finally on the same schedule again and when she got home she found Oliver in her apartment cooking for her which put a smile on her face, until she smelled that he was making a stirfry that smelt like garbage to her stupid brain and made her run to the bathroom and immediately started to throw up her lunch from earlier in the day.

Oliver runs to her side and holds her hair back from her face and rubs her back trying to sooth her but it was more just annoying her and his cologne was also making her nauseous so he wasn't helping much.

She sat back panting from the exertion of throwing up, she stood up and brushed her teeth quickly before swishing around some mouthwash in her mouth to get rid of the taste of the vomit. Once she was done she leaned forward onto the counter with both her hands and let her head dip down so her hair acted as a curtain around her face. She didn't want Oliver to see her, she really needed to tell him what was going on with her.

"Felicity you really need to see a doctor, you have been throwing up whatever you eat for over two weeks something could be seriously wrong," Oliver said and she could hear the worry in his voice and she knew that it was cruel to make him believe that she didn't know the reason behind her puking fits for the past two and a half weeks. She takes a deep breath that helps with her nausea but then she gets another whiff of Oliver's cologne and gets queasy all over again. She blew out the breath and moved around him out of the bathroom to get away from the smell to get some water. But the moment that she left the bathroom she smelled the stirfry and almost threw up again.

"Oliver there's something I need to tell you." She says turning around to look him in the eye and she can see the worry and concern present in his eyes.

"Felicity, what's going on? You're scaring me, is everything okay? Are you sick or something?" He asks and she shakes her head sitting down on the couch but the smell of the stirfry was really distracting her.

"Before I say anything could you please get rid of that stirfry? The smell is making me want to vomit all over again." Felicity said trying to take deep controlled breaths so that she didn't throw up again but it was really hard smelling that constantly.

"I thought you loved my stirfry?" Oliver asks still looking concerned and she would feel bad for the hurt look on his face if she didn't feel like she was going to blow chunks at any moment.

"Oliver I am begging you please, it will make sense once I tell you what I need to but I can't concentrate with that smell," Felicity said closing her eyes putting her head on her hands and taking deep breaths. She hears Oliver walk into the kitchen and throw it out and then she heard him open all of the windows before coming back over to her.

He knelt down in front of her and took her hands so that he could look at her and he could see that she had tears in her eyes and was about to start crying. "Felicity, what is going on?"

"I'm pregnant." She blurted out and her eyes bugged out of her head and her hands went to cover her mouth because that was totally not the way that she wanted to tell him about this. She wanted to do something cute but she knew that wasn't going to happen no matter how much she wanted to. Her brain knew that if it didn't just spit the words out without thinking then she might never tell him.

Oliver stared at her for a few moments not saying anything and not even moving, she was scared that he was having some sort of aneurysm or something. She stared back at him and let her tears fall down her cheeks, she moved slowly and rested her hands on Oliver's cheeks so that she didn't scare him.

"Oliver? Nod if you understand what I just said." Felicity goaded trying to get him to at the very least acknowledge what she just told him.

Oliver nodded which was at least a good sign that he was understanding what she was telling him, in his defense she has had a little bit of time to digest what was going on. She has had a week and a half to think about having a baby and the idea of becoming a parent way before she wanted to. He, however, has known for all of a minute so she was giving him a little bit of a break on the fact that he still hasn't said anything.

"How long?" He asked her as he slowly moved to sit next to her on the couch and she was happy that he was talking and wasn't having a full-on mental break as she had.

"I have known for about a week and a half, I haven't been to the doctors yet but I have an appointment on Friday if you want to come," Felicity says as she continues to stare at him to try and figure out what he was feeling or how he was handling this. Normally she would be able to look at him and tell what was going on in that crazy mind of his but today, she couldn't. His eyes were blank and that terrified her.

He nodded and looked away from her and got up from the couch and she was worried that he was just going to leave her sitting there but he started pacing back and forth in her living room. She watched him for a few moments before deciding to say the thing that she was dreading most.

"You can be as involved as you want, I'm not expecting anything from you or your family. I need you to know that I didn't plan this, I didn't want for this to happen right now. But I am going to keep this baby, I can't bear the thought of giving it up for adoption for someone else to raise." Felicity admitted trying to gauge his reaction to what she just said as well but whatever he was feeling he was making sure not to let it show and that terrified her more than she wanted to admit that it did.

"Oliver please say something." Felicity practically whispered and Oliver finally stopped pacing and took one look at her before taking off the apron that he was wearing and grabbing his suit coat putting it on.

"Oliver?" Felicity asks her voice breaking hoping that he wasn't going to do what she feared that he would.

"I just...I need to think about this." He said not looking at her but she could tell from his posture that he was scared and worried and but there was something else in his posture that she couldn't read but she knew that it wasn't a good thing.

"Oliver, talk to me. What's going on in that head of yours?" Felicity asks and gets up walking over to stand in front of him trying to get him to stay and talk instead of running away from this. If they talked things through then maybe they could make this work but if he ran from this then he was admitting that he was scared.

"Felicity...I just...I can't do this right now." Oliver says taking a step away from her as he walks out the door leaving her standing there in the middle of her living room completely alone. Alone and wishing that she would have listened to Dig when she had the chance and not trusted him because it felt like her heart was going to break into a million pieces.

She really thought that he would have stayed and talked things through with her and figured out a situation that they could make work. This entire relationship had been built on them communicating with each other, talking to each other when they needed to and now he just left. Left her standing here alone and pregnant wondering what the hell she did wrong to make yet another man in her life leave her.


	8. Chapter 8

She sat down in bed and cried, there wasn't much else that she could do. Oliver had just left and the worst part was that she didn't know whether or not he was ever coming back. They had something amazing going, she knew the way that he made her feel was unlike anything that she had ever really felt before. It may have only been two months but she knew that she was on the track to falling in love with him which is the worst part.

She could have loved him, they could have had something amazing and he was choosing to walk away. She understood that he was scared, she was terrified too but they could have figured this out together. Instead, he was choosing to leave her all alone and for what reason? Because he didn't want to be a father? Because he wasn't ready? She wasn't ready either but she didn't get a choice in this, she had to stay.

Dig was right, the way that Oliver handled this was going to irrevocably change her life, she was now a single mom as far as she knew. She couldn't rely on the fact that Oliver might come back and want to make things work because she might be waiting for the rest of this child's life and that wouldn't be fair to them.

This must have been what it was like for her mom, lonely like nothing was ever going to be the same again. She never in her life thought that she would sympathize with her mother so much than in this moment while she sat in her bed barely being able to breathe from the intensity of the pain that she was feeling.

She had a newfound appreciation for her mother and how she handled things, she made it look so easy and never made Felicity feel scared that anything was wrong. For all of her fault's, she always made Felicity feel safe and wanted and that was something that she could have easily not done. She worked so much that it would have been easy to just do the bare minimum for her but she didn't. She always made sure that she got things that she wanted for her birthday and never once did she make her feel bad for being just like her father. She always praised her and came to every mathlete championship and scholastic decathlon and never once complained. Suddenly Felicity was feeling incredibly grateful for her mother and felt the need to tell her this.

She picked up the phone to tell her this but then she stopped and just stared at her contact photo not being able to hit the call button, Felicity was always a bad liar but no matter how hard she tried her mother was always able to see right through whatever facade she put up. Her mother always knew her best and Felicity knew that if she tried calling her just to hear the comforting sounds of her mother's voice that her mother would automatically know that something was wrong.

How was she supposed to tell her mother that she was in the exact same position that she was in? Felicity always told herself that she would never let herself be put into the same position as her mother and yet here she was. 24 and pregnant and without anyone to help her, the father nowhere to be found.

Her mom always drilled safe sex into her head so that this wouldn't happen to her. Felicity was suddenly struck with an entirely different kind of fear. Fear that a child gets when they know that the information that they have was going to potentially disappoint their parents, that feeling in the pit of your stomach that nothing was going to be the same once you told your parents this information.

Felicity knew that her mother would love to finally have a grandchild considering that she was always bugging Felicity to give her grandbabies but she also knew that this wasn't the situation that she ever wanted her daughter to be in. She suddenly got this overwhelming feeling that she just needed to talk to her mom. Maybe telling her first wasn't the worst idea that she ever had, her mom would be the only one that could relate to the situation that she was in. The only one that could give her advice and mean every word because Donna had been through what Felicity was going through.

Felicity took deep breaths and steadied her rapidly beating heart, she needed to calm down if she was going to call her mom. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell her or not but she also knew that her mother would get the information out of her even if she didn't want to share. She finally pressed the phone icon on her phone and began to call her mom in the hopes that she could help her calm down and see reason. Help her see that things would actually work out, that she could do this.

"Felicity, honey are you okay?" Donna immediately asked and Felicity furrowed her brow as she pulled the phone away from her ear giving it a weird look, was she psychic?

"Uh...Yeah mom why wouldn't I be okay?" Felicity asked trying her hardest to keep her voice even so that her mom didn't suspect anything but Felicity began to wonder if calling her at all wasn't alarming, to begin with.

"Because you hardly ever call anymore, I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay," Donna said still not believing her daughter at all and that anything was actually okay.

"I just wanted to hear your voice is all, and I call you. I just called you..." Felicity began to say but stopped realizing that she couldn't even remember the last time that she called her and she suddenly felt like a horrible daughter. What if this child did the same thing to her? She had only known that she was pregnant for a week but she already loved this child more than anything and knew that the very thought of her child cutting her out of their life would break her heart all over again.

"Felicity what's going on you're making me nervous," Donna said a tiny sliver of anxiety sneaking its way into her voice and just like Felicity predicted she felt this undeniable need to tell her mom what was happening. She needed to share what was going on with her, she just needed her mom.

"There's something I have to tell you," Felicity said still not entirely ready to utter the words to her mom, after the monstrosity of telling Oliver less than three hours ago, she was suddenly struck with anxiety that her mom would leave her too.

"Just tell me, Felicity, no matter what it is I will always love you," Donna said.

That was the exact thing that Felicity needed to hear in order for her to be able to share this with her, she suddenly just knew. She knew that her mom would never leave her side, even if she was disappointed in her for the choices that got her here she would never leave her. Her mom was her number one fan even when she didn't understand half of the things that happened in Felicity's life. She went to every decathlon and robotics competition and mathlete competition. She was always there and it wasn't until now that she was starting to realize that, it wasn't until she was about to become a mom herself did she realize that her mother always believed in her and always wanted the best things for her.

"I'm pregnant," Felicity whispered and Donna wasn't sure that she heard her correctly or if she heard her at all. She didn't even know that she was seeing someone. She sat there on the opposite end of the line in silence for a few moments. Donna didn't know what to say or how to respond, Felicity didn't seem excited or happy about this which meant that this was all an unfortunate accident.

"You're...you're pregnant?" She asked suddenly starting to comprehend what she had just told her. Donna knew that Felicity was always embarrassed by her when she was growing up, mainly for the fact that she was very open with her and talked to her about lots of topics that most parents wouldn't address with their kids. But she always made sure that Felicity was having safe sex if she was, she wanted a better life for her daughter than being a single mother and having to always struggle.

Donna knew that Felicity was a lot better off than she was when Felicity's father left them with absolutely nothing. Donna knew that this baby would be a lot better taken care of but that didn't mean that she ever wanted her daughter to go through the struggles that she did when it came to being the only parent.

Felicity took a stuttering breath that sounded more like a sob than she would have liked, "Yeah, I found out about a week ago. I think I'm only three and a half months along."

"And the father?" Donna asked needing to get that question out of the way, Donna had the feeling that he wasn't going to be in the picture but she needed to make sure.

"I...I just told him a few hours ago and he-" A sob escaped her lips and Felicity couldn't help as the tears rolled down her face at the picture of Oliver just grabbing his stuff and leaving the apartment.

"He left mom, I told him and he said that he couldn't do this and just left. I don't know what to do, I really thought that we could have had a future. We had only been dating for two months but it didn't feel like any other relationship that I have ever had, it felt different. I think I could have loved him." Felicity finished saying that out loud for the first time, it felt cathartic to say those words out loud, to admit that he could have been the one but that he left before he even gave them a chance to deal with this. He just ran without giving it a second thought about the damage that he would be inflicting.

"Oh, honey. He obviously doesn't understand what he's missing out on, he doesn't deserve you if he just left without even talking with you and trying to make things work. I know that it seems impossible right now and like you aren't going to be able to make it all work but I promise you that you'll figure things out. It seems hard right now Felicity but you have so many people in your corner and I will be here every step of the way." Donna said knowing what she needed to hear because these are all things that she needed to hear when she was a little older than Felicity was.

"It's not going to be easy Felicity I won't lie to you, being a parent especially a single parent you have to make some pretty hard decisions but it will be some of the most rewarding years of your life watching this baby grow up and know that you did it on your own. I will be here every step of the way honey, I am always going to be here for you no matter what and you have talked about friends that you have over there. You have so many people standing behind you and ready to help, don't worry so much. Let yourself enjoy things as much as you can because before you know it, it will all be over and you will wish that you can have these next couple of months back," Donna said.

Felicity let out another sob but this time she was crying grateful and happy tears, she was worried for nothing. Her mom was proving her wrong in every facet of the word right now, hearing her give her advice and tell her that she was going to be there for her no matter what made her feel like maybe she could get through this, that it wouldn't be as bad as her anxiety was making it out to be.

"Thanks, momma, I really needed to hear that," Felicity said without even realizing what she had called her, she only ever called her mom momma when she was upset or hurting. It felt good that for once she was talking to her mom and Donna wasn't annoying her or she wasn't telling her all the things that she should be doing. For once they were talking about a topic they had in common, it was something that only happened a few times in Felicity's life but it was moments like these that she felt incredibly close with her mom.

"Anytime baby girl. I'm here anytime you need me no matter what honey." Donna said and Felicity nodded playing with a loose string on her pajama pants before taking a full deep breath.

"I know, speaking of which were you ever nauseous with me and had uncontrollable morning sickness?" Felicity asked needing some tips to deal with this because this child was starting to destroy her esophagus with how much she was throwing up.

Their conversation went on for another couple of hours Donna giving Felicity lots of tips for pregnancy and things that worked for her and things to do later on. It ended in Donna sharing stories from when she was pregnant with Felicity and it made Felicity feel better than she ever would have thought.

She went to bed that night feeling a lot lighter than she thought that she would have felt. Oliver may have left and she may be alone in terms of not having the father there to help raise this baby but she wasn't alone and her mom helped remind her of that. She felt like maybe she could do this on her own, even though it was going to be extremely difficult she could definitely do this on her own.

* * *

A week, she had been alone for a week now and it hasn't been awful, granted she hasn't had much time to process what is going on. With everything at work, she hasn't let herself process a lot of what has happened. She has however been texting her mom almost everyday freaking about some little thing that she found out about the pregnancy and all of the things that could possibly go wrong. It was safe to say that she and her mom have gotten significantly closer since she had shared her pregnancy with her and she was growing more and more grateful every day for her mom.

Diggle, however, was a different story, the moment she told him about how Oliver reacted she had to physically restrain him from leaving the premises of the building to kick his ass. She didn't blame him because she also wanted to kick Oliver's ass but she was just trying to forget about everything and forget about the fact that he left without a second thought and hasn't even come back to discuss anything with her.

She wouldn't change anything though, this baby had started to become a bright part of her day, thinking about her future and everything that was going to come of this made her suddenly not so angry with herself for getting into this situation. It's taken her two weeks but she has finally become okay with the idea of having this baby.

She went to her first doctor's appointment and came back feeling even better than she would have thought, she got to hear her baby's heartbeat and she instantly started to cry, there was an actual little life inside her. Her body was creating another human, she got ultrasound photos that had a little blob on it. You could barely make out the outline of a little human inside there because she was, in fact, three months along. But seeing her baby and hearing their heartbeat reinstilled something in her that she never would have expected.

She got back from the appointment and gave Diggle one of the photos for his desk and she could have sworn that he almost started crying right then and there. This baby was such a little blessing and you could barely tell that she was pregnant yet.

Her belly seemed to grow overnight, she could just barely not fit into her jeans and skirts but was too tiny for maternity wear. She was getting very annoyed that she had nearly no clothes to wear to work, especially because she wasn't ready to tell anyone at work yet. Everything that she had to wear accentuated her tiny growing tummy, normally she would find it funny but at the moment it was a pain in the ass and grating her nerves.

She walked into her apartment after another long and grueling day of work and the only thing pushing her to eat or take care of herself was this child. "Alright baby, what do you want to eat? I don't have a lot but we could definitely order something in, I could really go for some Italian food right now"

Felicity had gotten into a strange habit of talking to her bump, it made her feel less lonely and often made her forget the fact that her life was kind of in shambles. She wasn't letting herself feel the hurt or betrayal from the break up with Oliver, she knows that she needs to deal with it but she doesn't think that she is ready just yet. She doesnt think that she will ever be fully ready to confront what had happened between them.

She is about to say something else when her security phone starts ringing, she stares at it suspiciously. Who would be here to see her right now? None of her coworkers knew where she lived and if it was her mother Diggle more than likely would have just let her up. She answers the phone still cautious at who or what was waiting for her on the other end of it.

"Hello?" Felicity asked as she went through her mail absentmindedly trying not to focus on the nervous feeling that she got in the pit of her stomach.

"I have someone here who would like to see you," Dig says and she stops looking at the mail and stares ahead. She closes her eyes taking a deep breath trying to steady her beating heart.

"Who is it?" Felicity asks setting down the mail on the table that she has by her front door, she pinches the bridge of her nose as she begins to feel a headache coming on.

"It's Queen," Diggle says with venom present in his voice and Felicity didn't blame him because she has pictured punching Oliver out multiple times in the past week.

Felicity froze when she heard those two little words, she didn't know what to do. She knew that she needed to see him and talk to him but frankly she didn't want to, she didn't want anything to do with the man that left her standing alone, scared, and pregnant in the living room of her apartment. However, if he was here then he obviously had something that he wanted to say to her and for the sake of their child, she should at least give him a chance to speak his mind about whatever it was that he came here to talk about.

"Can you give him the phone?" This was the best that she could do at the moment, speaking to him through the phone seemed like the best option at the moment. Hormones were raging through her body and she wasn't going to be responsible for her actions if she decked him.

"Felicity...I don't know if that's such a good idea." Dig said in a warning tone and she rolled her eyes, again she understood where he was coming from especially after this week but if she was willing to take the risk then he shouldn't be second-guessing her choices.

"Dig...he is obviously here for a reason and I am going to take a wild guess and say that it's not to talk to you. If he has something to say then I need to at least hear him out, if not for me then for this baby. He or she deserves to know what happened if he really is deciding to leave me all alone with this baby." Felicity tried to reason with Dig and she heard him sigh on the other end obviously not liking her decision but not prepared to argue with her on it.

"How about I give you permission to punch him if he does or says anything inappropriate? Would that make you feel better?" Felicity asks with a small smile on her face hoping that he would hand the phone over so that she could get this damn conversation over with. She rubs her belly absentmindedly, it has become a source of comfort for her.

"That does make me feel slightly better I'm not going to lie," Diggle said and Felicity laughed as she started to calm down a little bit only forgetting for a split second what was waiting before her.

"Alright hand over the phone Dig, let's get this conversation over with." Felicity sighed wanting nothing more than to crawl into her bed and take a nap, creating a tiny human was exhausting work.

She heard him pass the phone over and also say something to Oliver in that time, Felicity would have been more curious about what he said if she wasn't so unbelievably worried about what he might say to her.

"Felicity-" Oliver started but she stopped him before he could begin, she needed to get something out first before he said anything.

"Listen, I don't want your money and frankly at this point, I don't know if I want you in this child's life. I don't know what you came here to say but I just wanted you to know that. I have lost all trust and respect for you." Felicity said, she could feel the tears begin to gather in her eyes but she wasn't going to let herself cry over this man, not after everything that he had done.

"I know that you have no right to trust me, I messed up and I know that, it's just...when you told me that you were pregnant I panicked. I heard both of my parent's voices telling me how much I had messed up and what a screw up I was, which I know isn't any sort of excuse in any way but I just panicked and left instead of even talking to you. I know that you want nothing to do with me but I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't at least come back and try. I needed you to know that I know that I messed up, but I have done a lot of thinking and I really want to be a part of this child's life. If you don't want me in your life then I will respect that but I want to be in this child's life.

"I know that I am not ready in any way to be a father but Felicity I am going to try my damndest to prove to you that I can do this. I have already resided myself with the fact that I have lost you and I don't expect anything from you, I know what your dad leaving did to you and I did exactly that. I left you thinking that you were on your own and I really hate myself for doing that but maybe with some time you can come to trust me again too." Oliver said a bit out of breath from the sheer panic of her denying him this chance to help raise this child but also sheer panic about the fact that he knows that he lost her.

The other end of the line was silent and Oliver's heart was beating so fast it felt like it was about to be airborne and fly out of his chest.

"Could you repeat the middle part of that? I missed it." Felicity said suddenly standing in the lobby five feet from him and he could tell that she had been crying. Or at the very least was trying really hard not to, he looked at her and could tell that she hadn't been sleeping and overall she didn't look too well and that was all on him.

"I'm going to take this as a good sign or am I getting too ahead of myself?" Oliver asks hoping that maybe he was on the right track with her.

Felicity looked at him and she could tell that he was being sincere and genuine with everything that he said, he looks like he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep since he left and she could relate to that. She wasn't able to sleep without him there next to her and it has killed her the past week knowing that he wasn't coming back but now that he was here she was tempted to forgive him. That little insistent part of her brain was telling her not to trust him though. That he left once and what was stopping him from doing it again? Why should she trust him again if all that he was going to do was leave?

"Listen, Oliver, I'm not going to sit here and say that what you did to me didn't completely gut me. Watching you walk away after I told you I was pregnant killed me, I have barely slept and the only reason that I have been eating is because of his baby. You left and I didn't know whether or not you would ever come back and I would have been able to deal with that if it were just me. I can handle a heartbreak, but the moment that I thought about the fact that you were not only leaving me but that you were also leaving this baby as well I was a whole new kind of heartbroken. I was heartbroken for this baby, for what they would never get to have, I was enraged because I promised myself that I would never let my child only have one parent. That I wasn't going to have kids until I knew for sure that the other person wasn't going to leave me just like my dad left me and my mom.

"Then suddenly I find out that I am pregnant a few days after we talk about kids and when we wanted to have them, days after both of us admitted to not wanting kids for a few years yet. I prepared myself for this to happen but I hoped that it wouldn't." Felicity paused and never looked away from Oliver's eyes, she knew that she was hurting him and she couldn't seem to get herself to care because of the things that he had done to her over the past week.

"I don't want to trust you, I don't want to let you in but I know that I can't keep you away from this baby and I know that I shouldn't either. If you are willing to stick around and help me raise this baby then okay, I won't deny my child that opportunity, but don't expect me to forgive you so easily. It's going to take a hell of a lot more groveling for me to trust you again." Felicity said sounding angrier than she meant to but she can't seem to get herself to care at the moment, he needed to know what she was feeling and what to expect from her in the future. Plus these pregnancy hormones were raging and she couldn't always control her emotions

He stared at her and nodded not knowing what else to say, he was already just grateful for the fact that she wasn't denying him from ever seeing his child, she never seemed like that type of person but he was overjoyed. Tears slipped down his cheeks because he couldn't seem to be able to control it.

"Thank you, I don't deserve this second chance and I know that but I promise I won't leave again. I am in this for the long haul I promise." Oliver says taking a step closer to her and she had to stop herself from physically backing away from him.

Felicity looked at Dig and saw that he had a few tears rolling down his cheeks and she narrowed her eyes at him and continued staring at him, "Are you crying?"

John saw that Felicity was looking at him and wiped his tears away as if they were never there and she scuffed and shook her head. "His speech was touching...Don't judge me."

Felicity let out a bark of laughter that she couldn't control, she shook her head as she continued looking at him. Oliver looked a bit taken aback by the look on Dig's face, that was definitely not what he thought John was going to do.

"What happened to punching him because he hurt me?" Felicity asked, still trying to control her laughter.

"A man is allowed to change his mind, isn't he? He obviously is sorry and he is here trying to make things right and raise his baby with you and wants to make it work in any way that he can. That is touching Felicity you have to admit that. Plus me and Lyla watched The Notebook last night so I'm in a romantic mood, judge me." John said and Felicity chuckled at his last comment, she was convinced that Oliver did something to him to make him somehow change his mind.

She peeked over at Oliver and saw him giving her puppy dog eyes and she rolled her eyes, she definitely didn't need this today. "Oh don't give me those puppy dog eyes I am still royally pissed at you and don't actually believe you when you say that you aren't going to leave when things get slightly hard again. You do realize that parenting isn't easy, there are going to be plenty of days where you are going to want to quit, but you can't. If you don't think that you can stay for the rest of this child's life then you should leave." Felicity said with venom behind her voice, she needed to know that he was serious and that he didn't think that this was something that he thought he could just leave behind when things got boring or hard.

"I realize all of that Felicity, I know that this isn't going to be easy but I also know that there is nothing that I want more than to do this with you. I am not going into this expecting us to be a couple again, just co-parents, that's it." Oliver said taking another step towards her so that there were only a couple of feet of space between them.

Felicity could see once again in his eyes that he was being sincere, that he meant every word and it was hard not to believe him a little bit and she absolutely hated that she did. She didn't want to believe him, she didn't want to fall for this charade that he might be putting on. There wasn't one bone in her body that trusted him but there was a small part of her heart that had hope that maybe he was telling the truth and wasn't conning her.

"Okay, I am choosing to believe that you are telling the truth but one wrong move and you are going to regret it," Felicity said threatening him.

"Thank you, I know that I don't deserve this chance but I am not going to waste or ruin this I promise," Oliver says looking like a kid in a candy store and she can't help but try and picture a little mini Oliver running around and it gave her chills thinking about it.

"Well, now that's taken care of can I ask why you smell so god awful?" Felicity asks trying to take a deep breath but she can smell Oliver and it makes her physically gag from the stench that was coming off of him.

"Yeah man not going to lie that is a little bit of the reason that my eyes are watering." John comments and Felicity giggles rolling her eyes not believing a single word of that. Whether he wanted people to believe it or not John was a giant softie and loved love and romance.

Oliver looked between both of them really embarrassed to admit this next part to them, he was extremely ashamed to admit everything that has happened this past week. "I haven't showered in a week and am wearing old clothes from the back seat of my car."

Felicity's face scrunches up in confusion not understanding, "Why?"

Oliver looked between the two of them a few times not wanting to tell them the real reason, he didn't want either of their pity but especially Felicity. He didn't want her thinking that he was only coming to her because he didn't have anyone else because that isn't the case at all. It took him losing everything for him to realize the important things in his life and he realized that she is one of those things.

"I told my parents about you and how I got you pregnant and they started screaming about how I was a screwup and couldn't get anything right and then they cut me off and threw me out. I have been staying at the club secretly without Tommy finding out, I didn't want to ask to stay with him because...well he is currently dating one of my ex-girlfriends and I don't want to be there for that." Oliver admits knowing that lying to her wouldn't have been a good way to build any trust with her.

Felicity's eyes bulge out of her head thinking about him getting kicked out of his house and completely cut off because of this baby, she instinctively lays a hand over her slightly distended abdomen trying in some strange way to protect the baby. From what she wasn't sure but she felt this inane need to protect it. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty for this and for him getting kicked out even though she knew that it had nothing to do with her. She stared at him for a few moments wondering how to even react to this, her first instinct was to say that he could stay with her but she wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

Felicity tended to have a huge heart when she saw her friends or someone that she cares about hurting, she generally feels the need to help them in any way that she can. However this situation with Oliver was different, she still didn't trust him completely and didn't want to put herself and her child in a position for being hurt once again by this man. However, she couldn't very well let him leave this building knowing that he was about to go live in his car or the club. He seriously smells like garbage and she was concerned for his hygiene and well being.

"If you," Felicity paused still not sure of what to do, but she knew that it wouldn't be fair to let him walk out of here knowing that she has a pull-out couch that wasn't being used and he had nowhere to go. "If you need a place to stay, you can sleep on my couch _but _this won't be a permanent thing. You can stay with me until you find another place if you need to." Felicity says still not 100% sure of her decision to let him stay but at least offering made her feel a little bit better.

"Oh...no that's not why I told you, I don't want to impose on you. I just didn't want to lie to you, it didn't seem like a good decision if I am trying to regain your trust." Oliver said trying to make her see that he didn't want her pity and that he didn't come here to make her feel bad for him. His only intention behind telling her was telling the truth not to get her to offer up her home, he was starting to feel slightly guilty.

"I appreciate you wanting to be honest but I can't very well let you leave this building knowing that you have no place to actually go. I'm offering more for my conscience than yours." Felicity said fibbing a bit only feeling slightly bad about it. She is trying to keep herself nonchalant so that he didn't see that she actually still cared about him. It was cold and a little mean but she was only trying to protect herself. She felt like a hypocrite, here she was wanting him to be truthful _and he was_ and now she wasn't. She was lying to his face because no matter how much of a facade she puts up there's always going to be a tiny part of her that is going to have feelings for him. The things that she felt for him were unlike anything that she had ever felt before, but she wasn't going to let him know that.

"Felicity...really I have a little money saved up and I'm sure that I'll find something soon," Oliver says trying to convince her not to let him stay and also wanting to make sure that she actually wanted him to stay. He was only going to stay if he knew that she actually wanted him to and it wasn't because she felt sorry for him.

"And what are you going to do until then? Never shower and sleep on a couch in the club? I have a pull-out couch and I don't see why you can't stay with me for a week or so, I'm not really offering anymore." Felicity says crossing her arms across her chest telling him that there was no room to budge on this. He was staying with her and that was the final say in things, you never mess with a pregnant woman when she has made up her mind.

Oliver looked at her slightly scared of the look that she was giving him, like if he didn't say yes to her then she would either ruin him or force him to go up to her apartment and stay with her. He looked behind him at Dig to try and see if he could give him any hint on what was going on in this crazy mind of her's, but he just found him staring back at him with a blank face.

Oliver wasn't naive, he knew that just because Dig was moved by the speech that he gave Felicity it didn't mean that the man still didn't want to murder him. However, Oliver was going to try his very hardest to make sure that they both saw that he was serious, that he may have made a colossal mistake but that didn't mean that he didn't love this baby. That he was going to give 100% and make sure that this baby and Felicity always knew how much he cared about them and how much he loved them. Wait...love...Oliver can't believe the things that he was thinking. It had only been a few months of the two of them being together, yet somehow nothing had seemed easier than admitting that he loved her.

"Fine, I'll stay with you but only with the intention of staying until I find myself a place. I already feel like I am invading your space and I don't want to do that anymore than I already am." Oliver says setting boundaries already knowing that he needed to or he would probably screw things up like he always seemed to with everything good that was in his life.

Felicity holds out her hand for Oliver to shake, she sees him look at it for a few moments before grabbing her hand and shaking it cementing their deal. She gets the feeling however that no matter how many times either of them says that he was only going to be staying with her for a few days, a week at most, that it wasn't going to go that way. She gets the feeling in her stomach that no matter what either of them wanted, things were about to get complicated.


	9. Chapter 9

A month...that was how long Oliver had been staying with her. She wasn't entirely complaining though, it meant she was getting healthy and balanced meals and there was someone to help out around the house. However, it also meant that her and Oliver were living in close quarters which made not growing feelings for him again very hard. She keeps telling herself that he can't be trusted and that he's just going to leave but then he goes and does something considerate and her heart skips a beat.

A great example is he has been going grocery shopping and always makes sure to keep mint chip in the freezer and always buys her mango because he knows that she is craving it. Whenever they seem to be home at the same time and he can tell that her back or neck is hurting he always offers up his magical hands for a massage. He truly is so caring and wants to make sure that she is comfortable and okay, it made not wanting to trust him with her heart extremely difficult.

Most days he stayed out of her way most of the time and he would be gone before she was even up. Where he was going she had absolutely no idea because she knew that he was on night's at the club at the moment. Frankly, it wasn't any of her business anymore where he was going, no matter how much she cared about him.

Him being a gentleman was making it hard for her to continue hating him. If she hated him then it was easier to not get attached and forgive him for leaving her standing in her living room waiting for him to come back. The longer he stays and the more she becomes acquainted with him being there again and the longer it's going to take for her to get used to life after he leaves.

Waking up with breakfast already made and ready for her each morning and having him be considerate of her wasn't something she was expecting even though he did all of these things when he was practically living there before. It was like she expected the Oliver that was moving in to be a completely different Oliver than the one that she dated, but he wasn't. He was still the same guy that treated her like a Queen, no pun intended.

She knew that if she told him that she needed something that he would immediately leave the club so that he could get her what she needed. He really was an amazing guy and she just wished that he wouldn't have run from her when things had got hard for them.

She thought she was done when they started dating, she thought that she had found someone that she could potentially spend the rest of her life with and then she found out that she was pregnant and everything changed not just for her but for them. He left and it had her second-guessing everything, it had her rethinking what she initially thought about him. Had her second-guessing whether or not she could trust herself, did she not have good judgment? All of these things rushed through her head for a week after he left and they were still rushing through her mind a month after he had been staying with her.

She was also starting to show and it was becoming incredibly difficult for her to hide her pregnancy, she seemed to have popped overnight. She thought that none of her clothes fit before, but now, she really couldn't fit into any of her clothes at the current moment. She knew that she needed to tell her boss Ray and the rest of her team.

She knew that her team wasn't stupid, she worked with a bunch of geniuses, they all knew that something was up with her but she had been doing a very good job of hiding her pregnancy. However this morning imparticular was harder than most, she bought some baggy shirts and loose-fitting pants to wear to work but they didn't do too much to hide her now growing belly. She knew that this was the morning that she had to start telling everyone at work about the baby. Digg and Oliver both have been telling her for two weeks now that she wasn't going to be able to hide this for much longer, and they were right.

She walked into work on a Wednesday wearing the only clothes that fit and knew very well that everyone would be able to tell that she was pregnant. She was three and a half months pregnant and she still couldn't believe how big she was. She really needed to cut back on all of the junk food, Oliver had been trying for a week or so to get her to eat healthy but she hasn't listened and only ate what she was craving and now she was starting to see that maybe she should start to listen to him.

The first person who noticed her was Caitlin when she walked through the doors of their workroom, Caitlin stared at her for a few moments not wanting to say anything. Felicity could feel her eyes on her but chose not to say anything about it. It was silent in the office for a few minutes while everyone was settling in for the day and getting everything out or their work bags. Cisco was the last one to walk in after Felicity and he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her being able to tell the difference in her appearance.

Felicity looked out at all of them about ready to just scream out that she was pregnant so they could all stop staring at her. She knew that she was only 14 weeks but with all of them staring at her she was starting to feel insanely self-conscious like she was the size of a whale already. She had been pretty secretive recently, none of them even knew that she and Oliver were no longer together because that would mean that she had to explain to them why they broke up.

"Alright, it seems like no one is going to ask so I am going to ask and risk being fired. I know that you shouldn't ever ask a woman this but it would actually make a lot of sense, are you pregnant?" Cisco asks and everyone in the room winces but are all curious none the less about her answer so they listen closely.

Felicity tilted her head not at all really offended by his inquiry, she was more curious about why it would make sense that she was pregnant besides the obvious bulging belly.

"I'm curious, why would it make sense if I was pregnant?" Felicity chose not to answer the question just yet.

Cisco opens his mouth to answer but the look on her face makes him second guess everything that he was about to say. All of the boys were scared of Felicity and her wrath especially the past month. Felicity will be the first to admit that she has been very moody the past month and a half, between the pregnancy hormones and the breakup and Oliver moving back in there has been a lot going on in her life.

She had been meaning to apologize to all of them for the way that she has been acting but she hasn't had the chance to yet. Now seems like a better chance than any, she looks between all of them and chuckles to herself at how scared they all seem to look. She would feel worse if it wasn't so amusing to her.

"Alright, I won't make you guys sweat anymore even though all of your terrified faces are very amusing. Your suspicions are in fact correct, I am pregnant. I am about 14 weeks a few days, I am thankfully out of my first trimester which means I'm not spending nearly every day and night in the bathroom puking my brains out." Felicity says sitting down in her chair and sighing from the relief of not having to stand on her feet in her heels. Oliver keeps telling her not to wear them to work if they make her feet hurt so much and make them swell up but she feels naked without them.

"Oh ew, that was too much information. A simple yes or no would have been sufficient." Barry scrunches up his nose at the image and the memories of two weeks ago of Felicity running to the nearest trash can to empty out her stomach at least once an hour.

"You asked, don't ask a question unless you can handle the answer to it. I also want to apologize for the way that I have been acting for the past couple of weeks. I know that I have been on a warpath recently and I wanted to apologize and say that I am sorry." Felicity said hoping that her apology was accepted.

"We forgive you, it actually makes a lot of sense how you have been acting. We all thought that we did something wrong" Curtis spoke for the group trying to walk on eggshells and not make her angry.

She smiled out at all of them completely and utterly grateful for her friends when she first got hired in at Palmer Tech she thought that everyone was going to hate her. Finding the four of them and being on a team with them though, was one of the biggest blessings in her life.

"How did Oliver react when you told him? It is Oliver's right?" Caitlin asks curious and a bit apprehensive about asking but she just wanted to be sure that it wasn't just some weird accident that happened before Felicity and Oliver got together.

Felicity froze knowing that she would have to at least give them a little bit of an explanation of what happened, she could try and lie and say that they were still together but she also knew that if he ever came around that they would know that something was up between them. She just really didn't want to relive all of that.

"It's Oliver's. He didn't take it the best, but we are working through it." Felicity says avoiding saying the obvious as she picks at her nails out of nervousness. She hates thinking about this, thinking about how empty and lonely she felt that night when he left. For a week she felt hopeless and terrified and scared about being a single mom, thinking about that week still makes her heartache and reminds her why she is keeping Oliver at a distance.

Felicity shakes her head attempting to shake away all of the intruding thought that she knew that she shouldn't be thinking about. Oliver for whatever trouble and heartache that he has caused her has really been trying to make it up to her, she knows that. She wishes that she wasn't starting to warm up to him again but she is and she doesn't completely hate the idea of it.

"I'm sorry to hear about that Felicity, have you found out what you are having yet?" Caitlin asks trying to change the subject and Felicity smiles at her friend thankful for the distraction of thinking about Oliver.

"Not yet, you don't usually find that out until 20 weeks so I am still another month and a half away from finding out. But I know it's going to be a girl, mother's intuition and all," Felicity says starting to feel better. She absentmindedly rubs her belly and feels that familiar flutter movement that she has been starting to feel. At first, she thought it was just anxiety, or gas, but her mom told her that it could be the baby moving as well. It always makes her smile thinking about the fact that her little peanut could be moving around.

"Okay enough baby talk, let's get to work. We almost have the coding and all of the kinks worked out on this. Hopefully, within the next few months, we can work towards getting things moved into the next stage so we can start working towards human trials." Felicity says putting on her game face and getting to work.

They worked tirelessly into the evening, it wasn't until Oliver texted her asking her how she was feeling around 6 PM that she realized that she had barely eaten today besides snacking and eating a small portion of salad that Oliver had made for her. She sighed and decided that she needed to call it a night and go home and eat an actual dinner and maybe take a bath.

She got home from work feeling utterly exhausted and nauseous, she may be out of her first trimester but the nausea doesn't ever seem to get better. She walked into the kitchen and warmed something up not paying attention to her surroundings and was prepared to watch reruns of Doctor Who when she found Oliver sitting on the couch.

"What are you doing home? Aren't you on nights this week?" She asked as she sat on the opposite end of the couch stretching out her legs onto his lap not caring about personal space at this point, she needed a foot rub. She settled into the couch and took a bite of the pasta that Oliver had made a few nights ago as he began to rub the soles of her feet working the knots. She was too focused on the food that was on her plate, to fully pay attention to what he was telling her. She may be nauseous but she was also starving.

"Well I talked to Tommy about being on nights and how I would much rather be working days and taking care of the business side of things, he said that he liked managing the club during operational hours anyways so...we decided that starting tonight I would be working days and he would be working nights so that solidifies my schedule. Plus once the baby gets here it's going to make things a lot easier on me if I am not switching up my schedule every week." He shrugged like it was no big deal as he watched whatever baseball game was on as if what he just said wasn't a big deal.

"It also makes it a lot easier for looking at places if I am on a normal schedule. Working nights and looking at townhomes was starting to wear me down." Oliver mentioned again sending Felicity for a curveball again.

Felicity looked up at him slightly shocked that he was being so cavalier about all of this like it was the most normal thing, and maybe to him, it was normal because he had been thinking about doing it. However, to Felicity this was news and frankly, it warmed her heart and also for some reason made her nervous that Oliver was starting to make major changes to his life for this baby. It meant that he was committed that he was actually going to be in this baby's life for the long haul. All of this meant that maybe Felicity would at some point have to forgive him and if she forgave him then not falling in love with him was going to become very hard. She wanted to not love him anymore, she just wanted to be able to co-parent with him and not fall in love with his gorgeous face.

"Oh..yeah that makes a lot of sense actually," Felicity responds suddenly not hungry, not knowing what else she really could say on the subject without giving away what was going through her mind. She didn't want him to leave. Even though the week that he left felt like a lifetime it was really only 7 days without him. If she could barely spend a week without him how was she supposed to do a lifetime? She was already reaccustomed to having him there, cooking and grabbing things off of high shelves, having someone to talk to and not always being alone. She may not at first have wanted him to stay with her for long but she was already used to having him here again, she selfishly didn't want him to leave.

Oliver looked at Felicity wondering why she was acting weird, was it still a surprise that he was committed? Was it about him moving out? He knows that she has seen him looking for townhouses a little outside of the city with a yard and multiple bedrooms, so he didn't understand why she was acting like this was coming as a shock. He knows that the original plan was for him to only stay for a week, but he really liked it here. He liked getting to be around felicity and experience the little things of pregnancy that he could with her.

He may be looking for houses and for bigger places to move in to but really he wished that she could move with him. He still had feelings for her, he knows that he majorly screwed things up with her but over the past month he has been trying his damndest to show her that he wasn't leaving. He didn't want to get too confident and say that she had forgiven him yet but he could tell that she was n her way to forgiving him. Oliver watched her while continuing to massage her feet trying to figure out what was going on in that head of hers. The only thing that he could see on her face was sadness and he silently wondered why.

"Is that okay? I didn't think that it would be a problem, I figured that it would make things easier actually, both of us having normal schedules. I also figured that you might want your apartment back," Oliver said looking at her and finding her looking down at her plate of pasta.

Felicity honestly didn't know how to react, it had nothing to do with him changing his hours at work or even him moving out, she was just scared. Scared that it was going to be like before and she was going to get used to him being around and then he was going to leave her again. She knew that he wouldn't, he has already proved to her that he was committed to her and this baby. Yet there was still a small part of her that can't help but think that once he finds someone else that he is going to leave her and their baby, just like her dad did.

"No that's not a problem at all. You know I'm actually exhausted, this child is draining all of the energy out of me so I think I am going to head to bed for the night. Don't forget that tomorrow we have a doctor's appointment at noon." Felicity said as she smiled at him and stood up walking into the kitchen and doing her dishes trying to keep herself busy so she didn't start crying in front of him.

"Yeah okay, I'll meet you there. Are you sure that everything's okay? Did I do something?" Oliver asks concerned that maybe he said something to make her angry or upset with him. He hated knowing that she was hurting and it was all because of him, all because he was a coward and an immature asswhole. If only he would have stayed and talked to her when she told him about the baby, things would be so different if he would have.

It has been a month and a half since he found out that Felicity was pregnant and with every day that passes he becomes more and more excited to meet this little life that they have created. Sometimes when he looks at Felicity though he can plainly see the hurt on her face, all that she sees sometimes is the guy that left her and he doesn't blame her. At some point, he just hopes that she can forgive him and she won't always be upset with him.

"I promise everything's okay, it has just been a long day. I told everyone at work today and we made some real progress today with the implant, I think I am going to just take a shower and go to bed early." Felicity says giving him a smile that she knows doesn't reach her eyes. The past week or so whenever she looks at Oliver she sees a sad man trying everything he can think of to make her believe that was sticking around. She hated to admit it but with every day she was softening up to the idea of him being in her life. Even the idea of being a couple again doesn't make her heart seize her and make her want to run.

"Okay, if you promise. Goodnight Felicity." Oliver says forgetting about the baseball game that is on the TV, only paying attention to the beautiful woman in front of him.

"Goodnight Oliver." Felicity walked into the hall and walked into her room and shutting the door and leaning back against it. She sighs and leans her head back realizing that there was no way in hell that she was going to be able to avoid falling back in love with Oliver because she was already starting to fall. She was just hoping that he will be there to catch her when she does.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning was a bit strange, it took a bit for both of them to get used to having the other there during their morning routine. It only took a few minutes for them to dance around each other like they had been married for years. They both snuck in glances at the other when they weren't looking wishing that there was something that they could say.

Felicity felt nervous after her revelation last night, she wanted to make conversation with him but also felt like the second she opened her mouth she would shout "I LOVE YOU" and that would do nothing but make things extremely weird and awkward. No amount of cute and adorable babbles would save her.

Felicity reaches for the pot of coffee and pours herself a cup and Oliver looks at her with a raised eyebrow. "You're not supposed to be drinking caffeine."

Felicity tilts her head and narrows her eyes at his comment wondering who made him the caffeine police all of a sudden. "I can have one cup every once in a while _Dr. Queen._ I have cut back thank you very much so if you'll excuse me I would like my cup of coffee without you judging me."

Felicity moves around him and grabs the pot of coffee, she was going to have a long day of meetings with executives and she was going to need all the caffeinated help that she can get with all of her boring meetings. It was sweet that Oliver was trying to look out for her and the baby but she didn't need him policing what she could and couldn't do especially when she has already cleared it with her OBGYN. Although he wouldn't know that because he hasn't been to a doctor's appointment yet.

"Do you want to meet at the doctor's office today or do you want me to pick you up?" Oliver asked deciding that for his safety he shouldn't comment about the coffee situation any longer.

"We can meet there it would be out of your way to pick me up," Felicity said as she made herself a bowl of yogurt and granola and went to the table to go sit down. She was being rude and she knew it, he was trying to make conversation and she was blowing him off and she would be the first one to admit it. She felt bad yes, she didn't want him to leave selfishly and she was also terrified at even mentioning this to him. What was she supposed to say? That she still has feelings for him and wants to get back together? That she has started to picture what the rest of their lives could look like if they were together? Nope, she _definitely _could not say any of that, that would probably freak him out. She going to stick to just being the woman carrying his future child...no, that sounded insanely creepy and weird.

"Okay sounds good," Oliver made himself a bowl of cereal and got his own cup of coffee before sitting across from her at the table and watching her eat in silence for a few moments. There was something going on with her and he couldn't figure out what it could be, not that the past month has been all smiles and rainbows but they have gotten closer. She has actually been talking to him and things have been getting back to normal a little bit, then last night he mentioned his schedule change and looking at places and suddenly she was closed off.

"Did I do something wrong? Or say something?" Oliver asked outright just wanting to figure out what he did so that he could fix it.

Felicity looked up at him surprised by his bluntness and looked up at him to see him staring back down at her, she sighed not knowing exactly how to put what she was feeling into actual words. "No, I'm not mad at you."

"Then what's going on? Ever since last night when I mentioned getting my own place and starting to look, you seemed to freeze up and have been weird ever since," Oliver said not looking away from her so that she could get a good gauge on what she was thinking.

Her stomach did a somersault at the mention of him moving out and she did her best not to flinch so that it wasn't _completely obvious _what was going on with her. She couldn't blurt out that she didn't want him to leave because she still has feelings, that would ruin the entire dynamic that they have going here.

"Nothing is going on with me, I am fine," Felicity said and she knew that it wasn't at all convincing and she was really hoping that Oliver wouldn't notice.

"Felicity we both know that you are a terrible liar, why won't you just tell me what's going on? Is there something wrong with the baby?" Oliver asked getting panicky and she felt even worse for acting weird. He cared about both of them so much and she knew that he would do absolutely anything for either of them.

"No there isn't anything wrong with the baby, we are both fine. Oliver, really I am okay and there isn't anything to worry about, I promise." She felt bad for lying to him but she needed him off her back if she was going to try and keep her emotions in check.

She looks down at her watch and sees the time and that she needs to get going if she is going to make it to work on time. "Crap, I have to go. I'll see you at the doctor's office." Felicity gets up and scoops the last bite of her breakfast into her mouth before putting it into the sink.

She grabs her bag and had to resist to weird urge to kiss Oliver's cheek on her way out of the door. She stops outside her shut apartment door and leans back onto it wondering what the hell was going on in this mind of hers. She and Oliver already tried a relationship and yes it was wonderful and everything but she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to fully trust him. Who the hell was she kidding? She was already well on her way to forgiving him for everything that has happened, there was just no way that he felt the same. He has made it clear that he is moving out and moving on and that they are just going to be co-parents and nothing more.

Felicity's morning goes by pretty uneventfully as she sits in meetings all day with execs trying to convince them that the work that they are doing could really change the world. Before she knows it she is leaving for her doctor's appointment and she had to say that she was very excited, more so for Oliver. She will never forget the first moment that she heard their baby's heartbeat, it's something that will stick with her forever.

She walked up to the doctor's office and saw that Oliver was standing outside waiting for her and couldn't help but smile. She couldn't help but admire the man in front of her in nice dress pants that made his ass look amazing and that shirt was doing wonders for his arms. Felicity shook her head trying to shake her intrusive thoughts away. She read online that the fourth month of pregnancy is when your hormones are out of whack and all you want to do is have sex with everything and anything and she had to admit that everything she read was true. She would jump Oliver's bones right now if she could, it was not helping that he was smiling at her like she was his whole world which just melted her heart.

"You ready?" She asks him as she walks up to him and he opens the door for her and they walk into the building.

"Kind of, I'm a little nervous if I am being honest," Oliver says as he watches Felicity sign them in and he goes and finds them somewhere to sit and wait for the nurse to come and get them. The waiting room was pretty packed for noon on a Thursday but he was just grateful that no one was gawking at him and wasn't taking out their phones taking pictures. The last thing that he needed was the tabloids or the media getting hold of the fact that he got Felicity pregnant and they weren't even together. They would have a field day with that.

Felicity sits down next to him and sees his nervous tick of rubbing his thumb along his index and middle finger. She smiles to herself and sets her hand on his and gives it a gentle squeeze trying to help him calm down. "There's nothing to be nervous about, they are just going to take some measurements to make sure that the baby is growing properly and then they listen to the heartbeat and we get a cute sonogram picture and then we are done. Easy enough."

Oliver nods listening to what she is saying and grips her hand like a lifeline but it still doesn't make him feel any better or puts him at ease. He wishes that it did but it doesn't, he is still insanely nervous that his genetics were completely awful and screwed their kid up. "I would like to believe you but I'm still nervous."

"Who would have ever thought that Oliver Queen would be terrified of going to the OBGYN even though he isn't the one carrying a child," Felicity says teasing him and she can't help but smile when he glares at her. She can't help but laugh at him and how worried he was, she wasn't making fun of him in any way she just found it incredibly endearing. Moments like these reassured her that he was going to make an excellent dad, he was going to love this baby no matter what. She had to admit that she got lucky by getting pregnant with Oliver's baby, not only was this baby going to be adorable but Oliver was going to be amazing and she just knew it.

"Shut up." He glowered and she couldn't help but let out a little laugh and lean into him just now noticing that they were still holding hands and she couldn't seem to let herself care. She was going to let her brain think for a moment that maybe they could actually be together and that the three of them could be a family together.

"So have you talked to your parents recently?" Felicity asked changing the subject knowing that it was something that has been on his mind recently.

"Wow. You just go from one nerve-wracking subject to another." Oliver said smiling a little bit knowing that Felicity was just trying to be supportive.

Felicity goes to respond with a snarky comment when the nurse opens the door and calls out, "Felicity Smoak?"

Felicity gets up along with Oliver and they follow the nurse back behind the door. They get all of the standard information, weight, height, how much her belly has grown before taking her back into one of the exam rooms to get her blood pressure and take some blood. She instinctively reaches for Oliver's hand needing to hang onto something so that she doesn't pass out, needles were not her friend and this was probably the worst part about these appointments. Oliver grabbed her hand and let her squeeze it to the point of pain but he didn't mind. He liked that she reached out to him for comfort, it made him feel needed and that maybe she was on her way to forgiving him.

"Alright everything looks good, the ultrasound tech will be here in a moment. She is running a little bit behind today but she shouldn't be more than 15 minutes." The nurse says leaving the room and Felicity is still trying to calm down from getting her blood taken.

"You okay?" Oliver asks, she looks pale but he gets the feeling its more from fear than something actually being physically wrong with her.

Felicity nods her eyes still closed as she took some deep breaths before feeling less faint and opening her eyes to see Oliver staring at her in concern in a way that makes her stomach do all kinds of flips or was that the baby moving around? "Yeah I'm okay, I just have a giant fear of needles so these appointments are never fun."

She smiled down at him and moved to remove her hand from his but he didn't make a move to let her, she wasn't going to complain or think too much about it. "You never answered my question."

"What question?" Oliver asked knowing very well what question she was referring to.

"Oliver." Felicity says in her 'no-nonsense' tone and Oliver sighed knowing that he wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Yes okay, I have talked to my parents," Oliver says not giving up a whole lot of information and letting go of her hand, Felicity pretended that she wasn't a little bit hurt that he pulled away. Felicity has been trying for two weeks to get him to talk to his parents for his own sake about everything and he finally caved but then she heard nothing else on the subject. She could tell that he was missing his family and she wanted to help fix that maybe.

"And? Come on Oliver I need a little more information than that." Felicity pokes at him trying to get him to give up information knowing that if Oliver didn't want to talk about something he wasn't going to unless it was her asking.

"Felicity I really don't want to talk about this," Oliver says but that doesn't stop her from looking at him with her puppy dog eyes trying to get him to release the information that she wants to know.

"You know I can't say no to you when you look at me like that," Oliver says and Felicity digs in even deeper knowing that he will eventually break. These were her child's grandparents after all she deserved to know what was going on at least a little bit.

"OK! Fine. Yes, I have spoken to my parents and they apologized. We have been talking to each other more regularly. Are you happy?" Oliver asks looking down at her to see an adorable little triumphant smile on her face and he couldn't resist smiling back at her.

"Well, I am happy to have gotten the information that I wanted but not happy that you and your parents still aren't on good terms because of me," Felicity said looking down at her hands feeling slightly guilty. It was her fault that he was disowned and on his own all because of her and this baby.

"Felicity," Oliver said waiting for her to look up at him but she wouldn't budge. He lifted two fingers under her chin and pushed her head up until she was looking him in the eye.

"Hey, this isn't your fault. It takes two to make a baby remember? They have been fed up with my behavior for years now and this was the last straw. My parents have actually given me access to my trust fund again, they can tell that I am serious about this whole being a dad thing and want their grandchild to be well taken care of," Oliver says.

Felicity scrunches up her face and looks a bit offended at Oliver's words. "I can take care of this baby on my own, this baby will be well taken care of with or without your trust fund."

Oliver was a bit taken aback by her reaction and sighs knowing that what he said was wrong, he didn't mean for it to come across the way it did but now that he has said it he doesn't know how to take it back or apologize. "Felicity that is not what I meant, I know that you can take care of this baby on your own if you needed to but you don't. I am here and I can help especially now that I do have access to my trust fund. I don't want you to think that you have to do all of this on your own, you have me."

Felicity sighs and rubs both of her hands over her face and into her hair, she knows what he meant but she can't help but push back. Her whole life she always hated the thought of ever depending on anyone, seeing what it did to her mom once her dad left; the way that she struggled to keep a roof over their heads. She made a vow to herself when she was ten that she would never let herself fully depend upon anyone because if they ever left she didn't want to be scrambling to try and figure out her life.

She hated that she did this to herself, she knew that Oliver meant well, she knew that. However, she couldn't stop herself from sitting here and getting defensive and put him in his place letting him know that she didn't need him in order for this to work. She knew how mean and cruel that was, he was so supportive and amazing and here she was being unreasonable. No matter how much she thought that she was ready to move on and forgive him these little feelings of insecurities and self-doubt filter through her head. They tell her that he is going to leave again and then she is right back to wanting him to leave and not wanting his help.

She looks up at him and sees the devotion in his eyes and for a few seconds those insecurities are forgotten and she believes that he isn't going to leave and that they are going to do this together. She really wants to believe that this feeling of security will stay with her but she knows it won't.

"I know, but I can't help but be nervous by the hold that your parents have over that money. I don't want them thinking that they can swoop in and tell me what to do, this is our child, Oliver. I don't want them thinking that they have a hold over me because we use that money to support ourselves." Felicity says honestly hoping that he will understand where she is coming from.

Oliver moves to respond before the ultrasound tech walks into the room with a bright smile on her face. "Hey, guys! Ready to see your little munchkin?" She asks sitting down on a stool in front of a computer pressing a few buttons to wake it up before washing her hands and putting on gloves.

Felicity puts on a little smile that Oliver can tell isn't completely genuine "Yeah, more than ready."

"Awesome, well if you just want to lay back for me and lift up your shirt for me mom and we'll get this show on the road." The nurse said in an overly joyful tone that Felicity would have found endearing if it wasn't for the conversation she and Oliver were having prior to her coming into the room.

Felicity laid back and pulled up her shirt showing her protruding stomach, she still could hardly believe that there was a little baby in there. The ultrasound tech squirted some of the goo onto Felicity's stomach and set the work on finding a good image to look at to get the measurements.

It took a few moments for the nurse to get a good image of the baby but she finally did and smiled at Oliver and Felicity as she saw that they saw the little baby too.

Felicity immediately started to tear up, this was the first time that the baby had actually looked like a little person and it suddenly hit her, there was a baby growing inside of her. She was going to be a mom. Oliver was going to be a dad. This was all so incredibly insane but also a moment that she was going to remember for the rest of their lives. She was already so in love with this little person inside of her, she didn't think that she could love someone anymore than she loved this little baby.

Felicity looked over at Oliver and saw that he had the same expression of pure unadulterated love on his face for this tiny little human growing inside her womb. She didn't even know when either one of them grabbed each other's hand but she squeezed his hand and he looked down at her and she saw one stray tear roll down his cheek.

"Never in a million years did I think that I would see Oliver Queen cry over a sonogram." Felicity joked and let her own tears fall down her face. Looking up into his eyes she knew that no matter what happened or what he did, she would always love this man. In her eyes, she already forgave him for what happened over a month ago. She knew that he loved them, both of them, and would protect them no matter what. Even if that meant not being together. No matter what happened between them she would always have some love in her heart for this man.

Oliver laughed and shook his head looking down at her and wiped away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. He didn't think that he could ever feel this type of love for someone, this pure instinctual sense of love, he knew he would do anything to protect this and make sure that he had it. He remembers listening to Thea talk about fairy tales and true love when she was little and thinking that she was crazy, that there was no such thing as true love. Now he knew how incredibly wrong he was because he was irrevocably in love with Felicity and this little life that they had created and it killed him that he screwed it up so badly that he was never going to be able to have another shot with her.

"Do you want to hear the heartbeat?" The nurse asked them, hating to interrupt the little moment that was going on between them.

"Yes." They both replied and laughed at how in sync they seemed to be without even trying.

The nurse pressed a button and suddenly the whole room was filled with this whooshing sound. Felicity looked up and watched Oliver's face as he heard their baby's heartbeat for the first time, she saw some more tears stream down his face and reached up and wiped them away.

"Oh wow. There's an actual little baby in there." Oliver commented with wonder in his voice. He looked down at Felicity again and gave her a smile that melted her entire heart, never in a million years did she suspect she would ever love another human as much as she loved him.

"Yeah, there is," Felicity said just staring up at him as he stared at the screen.

The nurse pressed a few buttons and the whooshing sound was gone and Oliver had this affronted look on his face that was priceless and adorable. The nurse passed a few paper towels to Felicity to wipe off her stomach and she accepted them happily as she got all the goo off her belly.

"Everything looks amazing, the baby is right on track for growth and the heartbeat sounds good as well. We shouldn't need to see you for another month or so for another check-up and by then we might be able to tell what the gender is. You're all set and can get your sonogram pictures front the front desk and also schedule your next appointment then as well." The nurse said cleaning up and moving out of the room to give Oliver and Felicity some space.

Felicity and Oliver grab their things and walk out and schedule their next appointment, Felicity can't help but smile. It was hitting her all of a sudden that Oliver was really in this for the long haul, they were planning their next doctor's appointment around both of their schedules. Something so small that shouldn't be such a big deal suddenly hit her, they were in this together.

Oliver grabbed their sonogram pictures and stared at them as they walked out of the building and onto the street of Starling. She watched him for a moment as he stood there staring at the four different picture angles before finally deciding on the one that he wanted to keep. Felicity took the other three from him and put them in her purse, they stared at each other for a few moments and Felicity could tell by the look on his face that his mind was going back to the conversation they were having before the nurse walked into the exam room.

"We really need to talk about my parents and their involvement in our lives." Oliver comments and Felicity looks down at the sidewalk and sighs knowing that he is right but not wanting to admit it. She didn't want to have this conversation but knew that it was necessary.

"I know, and I heard what you said and I understand that you want your parents to be apart of this baby's life. I just don't want them thinking that they can control things and tell me how I should raise my child." Felicity says looking him in the eye, she wasn't going to back down. She would allow Moira and Robert to be apart of this baby's life but she wasn't going to let them think that they had a say in how things were going to go just because Oliver used their money to pay for things.

"Your child? So suddenly this is just your child and not _our child_?" Oliver commented trying his best not to raise his voice, but he was angry that suddenly she was staking a claim on this child as if it was only hers.

"Oliver you know that's not how I meant it, but it's not like we are together anymore. We may be living together but we are just co-parenting together, two single people raising a baby together and I don't want to suddenly one day receive a call or a visit from your parents telling me that I am doing a horrible job at raising this baby. I don't need that kind of added pressure. I am not saying that they can't be apart of this baby's life but I just don't feel comfortable using their money when I make enough money to not need it." Felicity said regretting the words coming from her mouth the moment she says them, this is all coming out wrong. She didn't want to make him feel like she didn't care about him or that she didn't want him and his family in this baby's life because that's not what she wants but that's what it sounded like coming out.

Oliver stared at her for a few minutes giving it his best to hide the emotions that were swirling through his brain. Hurt, sadness, a little bit of anger thrown in, he understood that they weren't together but he didn't think it would hurt this much to hear her say those words. To hear her exclaim it out loud solidifying the fact that they were never going to happen again.

"I see."

"Oliver-"

"No. I get it. You don't want anything to do with my family and especially their help. I get it, my parents can be very overprotective and overbearing. But they will protect this baby with everything they have because this baby will be their family." Oliver says looking away and then looking down at his watch to look at the time. "I should get going, I have to meet my liquor distributor in a half hour. I'll see you at home."

"I also want you to know that I would never let them treat you with the disrespect that you seem to think that they will treat you with. You are apart of my life now and I would protect you and that baby no matter what." Oliver says with finality before finally walking towards his car and driving off.

Felicity watches him walk away and knows that she royally screwed all of this up, Oliver was obviously upset and she didn't know what she could do to make it up to him. She didn't mean to make it seem like she didn't want his family apart of their baby's life, she just got scared. Scared that his family was going to judge her and think that this was all a giant ploy to get his money when in fact that was the last thing that she wanted.

She sighed and started to walk back to her car hoping that there was some way that she could make this up to him because of that sad and heartbroken look in his eyes as he walked away. She needed to make this right, she just had to.


	11. Chapter 11

Oliver walked into the lobby of Felicity's building and saw that Dig was working the security desk and stopped about halfway to the elevators. He has been doing nothing but brooding and sulking all day about what Felicity said to him at the doctor's office. He knows that she didn't mean to be hurtful and that she would not want his parents to be apart of their baby's life. However, he couldn't help but think that maybe that was actually how she felt and she had just been holding back her true feelings for a while now. He couldn't help but listen to that little self-conscious part of his brain telling him that Felicity might actually truly not like his family and the way that he was raised and wants nothing to do with him.

He understands not wanting his family's money because frankly, he isn't even sure that _he_ wants it. She was right in saying that with that money comes a hold that his parents think that they have. They would think because they are helping to support him that they get a say with what he does with his life. Over the past month and a half living with Felicity, he has realized how free he has felt not having to think about what his parents might think about the choices that he makes. He has, for the first time in his life, made a living for himself and supported himself and he has to say that it feels pretty incredible.

Oliver turns and looks at Dig wondering if maybe talking to him might give him some better insight into what Felicity might actually be thinking.

Dig was already staring at him when he turns around and it would be a little awkward if he just walked away now after staring the man down.

"Can I help you with something Mr. Queen?" Dig asks putting down his crossword puzzle from the paper to stare at the man. He doesn't love the man but he will admit that he admired the way that he stepped up for Felicity and the baby. He would never admit this but he thinks that he was wrong about his original assumption about Oliver Queen.

"Can I ask you a question about Felicity?" Oliver asks a bit timidly as he takes a few steps towards the security desk.

Dig watches him and sees how timid and anxious he is and immediately wonders if he is going to have to beat this man up for hurting Felicity. "Depends on what you did."

Oliver would be offended by his remark but considering the guy Oliver used to be and also leaving Felicity for a week, he doesn't blame the man for thinking that he did something wrong to hurt her. "This isn't really about anything I did. It's more a question about me and what she thinks of me."

Dig looks at him confused and not quite understanding what he was getting at, but the sooner he answered his question the sooner he would leave him alone to his crossword puzzle and that was all he preferred at the moment. "Alright, make it quick Queen."

"Has Felicity ever mentioned me or her opinion about me? Has she ever said that she wished that I wasn't rich or anything?" Oliver didn't know how to phrase it without sounding douchey but it was the only way that he could think to phrase it.

Dig watched the man for a few moments trying to figure what he was getting at and why he was asking. He could tell that Oliver was really vulnerable and self-conscious at the moment. Dig looked at his body language and saw that he was hunched over and was hardly meeting his eyes and his hair looked like he had run his hand through it at least a hundred times which he assumes is a nervous tick along with the finger rubbing thing. Dig sighed and decided that he needed to be honest with the man because he was obviously hurting about something. Damn it, Felicity, for getting him involved in your love life.

"She hasn't ever mentioned anything directly no, she did make a few comments about how the thought of you being a billionaire was a little unsettling but nothing too out of the ordinary for her. I assume that you know how she grew up?"

"Yeah. She told me what it was like for her growing up in Vegas. Never knowing from month to month where she might be living or if they would get kicked out." Oliver said not even being able to imagine what that must have felt like for a young child.

"Right, so knowing that you had all that money and never had to worry about that was on her mind I'm sure but I don't think she ever let it affect her feelings for you. What is all of this about anyways?" Dig asks wanting to know what this weird-ass conversation was about.

"While we were at the doctor's today she asked me if I have spoken to my parents lately, she has been trying to get me to call them and talk with them. I told her I did call them and even though we aren't on the best of terms we are talking and that they can see I'm serious about being a dad to this baby. So they gave me access to my trust fund again and I told her that and she quickly got defensive and told me that she could take care of this baby on her own without their help. Which, I know that and I never once said that she couldn't but then later after our appointment, she told me how she didn't want my family telling her how to raise her child.

"I then got angry because suddenly she was acting as if I wasn't proving to her that I was in this for the long haul and wasn't going to be here like I have proven that I would be. She started to say how she didn't want anything to do with my family's money and I get that because she is right in assuming the second that you take it they feel they can tell you how to use it. She also said how we weren't together and how we were two single people co-parenting and she didn't want my family's opinion. That's what stung the most for some reason."

Dig stared at him trying to digest everything that he just heard and trying to comprehend the fact that Oliver looks like he might actually start crying and Dig wasn't exactly sure how to handle that. He was seeing an entirely new side to Oliver Queen at the moment, one that he didn't think actually existed.

"You still have feelings for her don't you?" Dig asked still trying to process everything that he was just told.

"That's what you are deciding to focus on right now? Really? After everything that I just told you?" Oliver says more than just a little annoyed at the man.

"Listen, man, Felicity...She doesn't care about your money and she never has, I think she is more scared about your parent's influence over you and her child. I have known Felicity for a long time and she isn't the type to care about money, I think that she is scared that your parents are going to try and parent her child and make her seem like an unfit mother. Also, she is probably intimidated by them, I mean who wouldn't be?" Dig suggested.

Oliver listened intently so he would know how to make it up to her when she got home from work. He really didn't want to mess this up. He couldn't lose her in his life even if they were just co-parents and nothing ever came of this thing that's between them. Sometimes it seems like maybe he is just imaging things between them, maybe it's all just one-sided and he really had been imaging things progressing between them over the last month.

"Yeah that was my thought too, I just don't know how to fix this or help her understand that I will always take her side if it came between our child and my parents." Oliver thought out loud knowing that if it ever came between them, he would choose Felicity and their baby in a heartbeat.

"Try telling her that, maybe that's exactly what she needs to hear right now to know that you have her back. I don't exactly blame her though, no offense but your parents don't seem like the nicest or most forgiving people," Diggle admitted.

"None taken, they aren't the nicest people you are right. That's why I don't blame Felicity at all for feeling the way that she does, they are very judgmental and only like people like them. Everyone who isn't rich is below them in their head and that's one of the reasons I wanted out. Getting disowned by them was probably one of the best things for me."

Diggle was starting to see Oliver in a completely new light after this conversation. Until this moment Dig still saw Oliver as the playboy who got Felicity pregnant and left her for a week on her own. But now after sitting here and listening to him trying to make things right with Felicity, he realizes that he really was wrong about him.

"I was wrong about you. Ever since I found out that Felicity was dating you I tried to get her to see that you weren't right for her, but I was wrong. You aren't the guy that I thought you were and I owe you an apology for judging you." Diggle said knowing when he's wrong and needs to apologize.

Oliver chuckled and smiled at the man. "Well I appreciate the apology, you didn't try to hide your dislike for me very well so I knew pretty much the whole time. I don't blame you for not liking me though if I were in your position and my little sister started dating a guy like Ollie Queen I would have probably done a lot worse than just staring him down."

"Yeah, well I promised Felicity not to hurt you or scare you off so you got lucky there," Diggle said with a little chuckle finally starting to feel like him and Oliver might be able to get along.

Oliver noded with the thought of Felicity in his mind wanting nothing more than to make things right with her and he knew exactly how he was going to do that. He looked up at Dig and smiled, they might not be best friends yet but he at least knew that Dig didn't hate him or want to murder him anymore. "Thanks, Diggle. Your advice really helped me."

"Anytime, but this doesn't change anything. If you hurt her I will not even hesitate to murder you." Dig said completely serious, he might have started to see Oliver in a different light and maybe start to like him. However, Felicity and her baby would always come first no matter how much he actually started to like Oliver.

"Noted. I promise I will not hurt her."

"Don't make a promise that you can't keep man," Dig said almost as a warning.

Oliver just nodded and made his way to the elevator to start to get to work on his apology dinner for Felicity.

Diggle watched him leave and went back to his crossword but the only thing that he could really think about was the fact that Oliver still had feelings for Felicity. Dig wondered to himself if maybe Felicity still had feelings for Oliver too.

"Damn it, Felicity, why did you need to get me involved in your love life?" He said under his breath trying to put it all out of his mind and focus on his crossword.

An hour later Diggle saw Felicity walk through the door looking worse for wear, he sighed and wanted to go back to his crossword but the nosy side of him also wanted to know what was going through her head and if she still had feelings for Oliver. He didn't even after to ask her what was wrong, she immediately came to his desk and stood there for a few moments without saying a word. He stared at her for a minute or two waiting for her to say something but she wasn't offering up what was wrong.

"What's got you so down in the dumps?" Dig prodded.

Felicity sighed and looked Dig in the eye before looking out the windows in the lobby and watching the busy city street, She didn't know how to phrase how she was feeling without simply saying that she felt like complete shit emotionally. She spent most of the day trying not to break out into tears randomly or not to yell at her team when they didn't do the simplest of things.

"Oliver and I had a bit of a misunderstanding at the doctor's office today after our appointment. I think I really screwed things up, you should have seen his face Dig he looked like a heartbroken little boy." Felicity said remembering once again what his face looked like after she said that this baby was her child and not their's.

"What happened?" Dig asked knowing very well what happened but he didn't want to let on that Oliver spoke with him when he got home from work.

"Long story short he got his trust fund back and I practically told him that I wanted his parents to have nothing to do with our baby's life and I practically staked a claim on this child. Everything that I said kept coming out wrong and I swear to you it looked like he was about to start crying. I just got scared, I don't want his parents to think that I am using Oliver for his money and I don't want them to think that I am an unfit mother and try to take this child away from me for some reason. I don't want Oliver to think that I think that he is anything like his parents because I know that he isn't, he has proven that. I just...I don't think that I could handle losing him again Dig."

'You have got to be kidding me, I feel like I am in some cheesy romance novel,' is what Dig thought to himself hearing all of this. His suspicions were now confirmed, Felicity did, in fact, have feelings for Oliver and vice versa. Although he was the only one that knew this information and he wasn't sure what to do with this information. They both still had feelings for the other yet he was positive that they both think that it was just one-sided. 'Nope. This isn't any of my business I am going to pretend that I don't know this information.'

"You need to have a talk with him then. Tell him everything that is going through your head, I am positive that he will understand. Then you both can put this behind you and figure out a way to come to a compromise about what to do about his parent's involvement in all of your lives."

Felicity nodded knowing that he was right, talking to Oliver was going to be the only way that they were going to get through this and come to some sort of an understanding. The very thought of losing him sent her heart into her stomach and not in a good way, in a 'my world is falling apart and there's nothing that I can do' sort of way. "Thanks, John, I don't know what I would do without you."

"Anytime Felicity, and maybe take it easy on him next time, you should have seen how he looked when he walked in here an hour ago," Dig said.

Felicity narrowed her eyes at his comment wondering when he suddenly started to care so much about Oliver or his well being. "Since when have you taken a liking to Oliver? Or cared about his feelings?"

Diggle wanted to look offended but knew that he couldn't. Before their conversation earlier he disliked the man with a passion, but now he actually liked the guy and he didn't exactly know how he felt about that. "I don't see how that's any of your business."

Felicity raised an eyebrow and gave him a look that said 'Tell me now or I hurt you.'

"Alright fine. When he got home from work earlier we had a little talk and I started to see that he actually has a heart and feeling and that he isn't just some playboy." Dig admitted and Felicity was impressed that Oliver somehow magically got Diggle to change his mind about him, she was thoroughly shocked.

"Must have been some conversation if you actually seem to care about him and don't want to kill him anymore," Felicity commented with a smile on her face happy that both of the men in her life were getting along.

"It was, but it's not for me to share the contents of that conversation," Diggle said knowing what Felicity was going to ask next, no matter how much he liked Felicity he wasn't about to share what he and Oliver had talked about earlier.

"Oh come on you can't just share a little bit of what he was thinking? Like whether or not he is angry with me?" Felicity asks with her puppy dog eyes knowing that if she tries hard enough that he will cave and tell her. She just wants to know how much she needs to grovel in order to make things right with Oliver.

"No. Stop that right now Felicity Smoak, you cannot break out your puppy dog eyes and think that I am going to share someone's secrets just because you ask nicely," Dig says putting his foot down. He can't on very good conscience share Oliver's thought's and feeling's with her without Oliver knowing.

"Oh come on Dig, I just want to know how much I need to make things up to him." Felicity nearly begs but Dig puts his foot down and crosses his arms while leaning back in his chair.

"Absolutely not. If you want to know what your man is thinking go and speak with him yourself, I am not your messenger."

"He is not my man," Felicity states looking affronted, no matter how much she wanted him to be, she would never admit that out loud though.

"Yeah, you can say that all you want but I am not going to believe you, especially not when you talk about wanting to make things up to him and not being able to lose him again," Dig says with a satisfied smile on his face.

"I don't still have feelings for him," Felicity states trying to cover up how she was really feeling.

"Hmmm, see I never said that you did. Why do you feel the need to prove that to me that you don't?" Digg asks knowing exactly what he was doing. She did still have feelings for him but she was too scared to admit that to herself, even if she has she is trying to push those feelings down.

"I'm done talking about this," Felicity says moving away from the security desk. She has had enough of feeling big emotions today, she just wants to go up to her apartment and take a nap.

"You can't avoid this forever Felicity," Dig yelled as she walked away and gave him the middle finger.

Felicity got into the elevator trying hard not to think about what Dig just said. If he could tell that she still had feelings does that mean that Oliver knew too? Is she not as good at hiding her feelings as she thought that she was?

She sighed as she walked out of the elevator and towards her apartment. She paused in front of the door trying to gather her feelings and squish them down as far as she could before she had to face Oliver. She wasn't sure what she was going to say to make it up to him but she knew that she had to at the very least try.

She unlocked the front door and walked in to see the table set and Oliver putting what looked to be the final touches on their dinner for tonight. She looked around confused, wasn't she the one that was supposed to be groveling and asking for his forgiveness and not the other way around?

"Hey, you're home just in time, I just finished dinner," Oliver said looking up at her and giving her a smile. He watched her take off her coat and her heels, she looked as exhausted as he felt.

"Is that Chicken cordon bleu?" Felicity asked moving into the kitchen and closer to their dinner that smelled absolutely delicious.

"Yeah. I figured I would make your favorite to make up for what happened earlier at the doctor's office." Oliver said not knowing how to go about saying what he wanted to.

Felicity gave him a confused look and cut him off before he was able to say anything. "Oliver you don't have anything to apologize for, I'm the one that needs to apologize."

"No, Felicity I feel like this is my fault, it was my parents and the money that made you feel uncomfortable. I get it thought because they aren't the greatest and nicest of people, but I need you to know that I will always be on your side when it comes to this baby. If it came down between my parents and you and this baby I would choose you every time."

Felicity stared into Oliver's eyes not knowing what to say or how to respond, he was choosing them. He just stood before her and said that if it ever came down to it that he would choose them over his family. What more could she be asking for at this point? All she wanted to do was run into his arms and kiss him senseless, telling him how she felt but she knew she couldn't. She had already made it clear that they weren't getting back together and he was probably already over her and moving on. He didn't mean anything romantic by what he said, he just meant that he would choose their child, not that he would _choose her _choose her.

"I don't know quite what to say to that, it's good to know that you will stand by me and stick up for me when it comes to your family. I do have some things to apologize for though, I said some things earlier that I know I shouldn't have."

"We don't have to talk about that," Oliver says looking down and not meeting her eyes and she knew just by his body language that what she said really bothered him.

"I think we do Oliver. I should have never staked a claim on this baby and left you out of the picture, I know that you are in this. You are here for the rest of this baby's life, you have made that very clear and I am sorry if I doubted you. I just got scared, I made a promise to myself when I was little that I wouldn't ever depend on someone. I never wanted to end up like my mother just in case the other person left and then I was left on my own wondering how I was going to live. You offering that money just sent me into a panic and I closed my walls and just reacted negatively. I'm really sorry if I hurt you in any way."

Felicity watched Oliver in hopes that she might be able to gauge how he was feeling and whether or not she would forgive her. She didn't want to admit it to herself but after today she couldn't say that she didn't depend upon Oliver. He was always there for her for the past month and a half. He has been going out and getting the foods that she craved and giving her foot rubs when she complained that her feet hurt. He was always making sure that she was taking care of herself and without even really noticing, she had become dependent upon him. Dependent to the point that when he mentioned moving out she shut down.

Diggle was right, she couldn't avoid these feelings forever, they were way too big to be able just to push down and hope that one day she would move on from them. She was in love with this man and she knew that without a doubt, she didn't think that she could love anyone more.

"I accept your apology, I won't say that what you said didn't hurt me because it did but knowing that it wasn't anything personal really helps. However, I would very much like it if my parents and sister could possibly be apart of this baby's life. They asked me if we would like to go over there for dinner just so you could meet them, Thea practically begged. She really wants to meet you and take you shopping for baby things." Oliver said nervously hoping that she would agree to go to his parents for dinner.

Felicity wanted to say no but she knew that she needed to compromise with him, she could tell how important this was to him. Gosh darn it, she really did love this man if she was about to say yes to meeting his parents two of the richest people in the city.

"Yeah we could go over there for dinner, I needed to meet them eventually," Felicity said and the smile on Oliver's face alone made saying yes completely worth it.

"Great, I'll give them a call tomorrow and we can pick a night that's good for all of us," Oliver said as he checked on dinner.

Felicity watched him and knew that she had to tell him now before she lost her nerve and never told him how she felt.

"Oliver? There's actually something else that I have to tell you." Felicity wrings her hands together, she was absolutely terrified that she was about to tell him how she felt and get rejected and ruin things. She also knew that she couldn't keep these feelings inside for much longer, she felt like she might burst.

"Is something wrong?" Oliver asked turning around to get a better look at her so that he could gauge what was going through that genius brain of hers.

"No, nothing's wrong I just...I still have feelings for you. Like huge feelings that I have tried to push down and not feel but after today I can't and don't know if I want to. I know that you probably don't have feeling for me but I just needed to tell you." Felicity watches him and prays to whatever God is up there that she didn't just screw things up.


	12. Chapter 12

Felicity has feelings for him, that's the only thing that is swirling through Oliver's brain right now. He can't think of anything else, the woman that he has been trying so hard to get to forgive him still has feelings for him. He might be able to make things right between them, she is giving him a second chance here and he wasn't going to waste it.

He didn't even say anything, he walked right up to her and kissed her. His hands framed her face as he kissed her and she kissed him back.

Felicity was a bit taken aback at first by the kiss but she reacted quickly, wrapping her arms around his waist and up to his back deepening the kiss. She ran her tongue across his bottom lip asking for entrance that he granted immediately. Her hands felt around his body admiring the muscles that she could feel through his shirt until her hands reached around his neck and she pulled him in as close as she could.

He finally pulled away from the kiss letting their foreheads rest together. Their breathing labored as Oliver's mind ran a mile a minute trying to figure out if he was dreaming or that actually just happened. He kissed Felicity and she kissed him back, he wanted to pinch himself to make sure this was all real.

"I'll take that as you feel the same way?" Felicity asked as she laughed not having opened her eyes from the kiss, scared that the second she did that everything would change or come crumbling down.

"I'm surprised that you even have to ask," Oliver says cheekily with a chuckle and pulls away just enough to look her in the eye. They both open their eyes at the same time, neither one of them wanting to say anything so as to not ruin the moment. They both just wanted to live in the here and now, live in the moment, before life came rushing back to them.

Felicity looks up into his blue eyes and her stomach drops half out of fear and half out of excitement. Her heart is telling her to tell him that she didn't think that she could even fathom the idea of doing this and raising this baby without him. But her brain is telling her to run because there is no way that she will ever be good enough for him and that he is just going to leave again. Felicity closes her eyes and takes a deep breath trying to tell her brain to shut up for once in her life and just let her be happy.

"Why do I get the sinking feeling that there's something else going on in that mind of yours?" Oliver asks and Felicity chuckles and leans into him needing comfort.

She wanted to trust him she really did, but her deep-seated abandonment issues were making that extremely difficult, she knew that he wasn't going to leave this baby as her father had done to her. Oliver had proved that to be true plenty of times throughout the last month and a half, that still didn't stop the doubt from seeping into her brain. She wanted so badly for this to work and she didn't know if she would be able to handle it if it didn't. Felicity took a step back so that she could really look at Oliver and she couldn't help but smile softly while looking into his eyes.

"This is all still a lot to take in, a lot has happened in the last 12 hours. I don't want to rush into anything before both of us are ready. Before I got pregnant everything happened so fast and moved so quickly and I just don't want to rush into things again and it not work out. I don't think that I could do this whole thing without you. As much as I don't like to admit it, I need you."

Oliver watched her and gave her a small smile, it felt good to be needed. To know that someone wanted him in their lives just because they wouldn't be able to get through life without him. It felt amazing to feel needed. Felicity didn't have any ulterior motives for wanting him in her life as his parents did, she simply just wanted him there to be standing by her side when things got hard. Oliver had never really been a relationship kind of guy but when he decided to open the club with Tommy and him and his parents started to drift apart, he suddenly wished that he had been. He needed someone to have by his side and help him through it and once he met Felicity, something inside of him just clicked.

It was something that he couldn't explain and had never felt before, he knew that he had to make this work. He had to put in the work and become a better man, if not for Felicity than for this little life that they both had created. He wanted to be a better father than his dad, he actually wanted to be there for this child. He wanted this baby to know that he would always be there for them no matter what happened.

He moved his hand to cup her cheek and Felicity leaned into the touch and Oliver wished that he could freeze this moment so that he could live in it forever. He felt completely at peace even though he knew that this was an important conversation and was emotionally charged he still felt at peace.

"You're right, a lot has happened in the past 12 hours. Hell, a lot has happened in the last four months but I still want to make this work. I know that I screwed up majorly by leaving when you told me that you were pregnant but I hope that you can learn to trust me once again. If that means taking things extremely slow and at a snail's pace then so be it, I will be here through everything. I don't want to screw this up a second time." Oliver admitted hoping that pouring out his heart will help Felicity to see that he was in this for the long run.

Felicity hung on to every word that he said, committing it all to memory, she wanted to be able to look back onto this moment and remember that look of adoration and truth in his eyes. That was the last push that she needed to take the leap of faith that was required when falling in love, is that what was happening? Was she falling in love with Oliver Queen? Wow was that a slightly terrifying thought.

"Okay, let's take things slow, I want to make this work. But no more running when things get scared, we need to talk things through, this won't work if we don't," Felicity insisted knowing that they needed to be honest and open with each other if this was going t work. Admitting that she wanted to make it work not only to herself but to Oliver was a feeling that she had been trying to avoid for weeks now. Now that she did she felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

"I guess I owe Dig a thank you," Felicity admitted remembering that he was the who pushed her.

"Dig? Why do you owe him a thank you for us getting back together? Last time I checked there were only two people in this relationship," Oliver joked making them both laugh.

"When I was on my way up just now he told me that I couldn't avoid my feelings forever and he was right. I have been sitting on these feelings of wanting to give this another try for weeks now and I knew that I had to come clean but I just didn't know how." Felicity admitted.

"Well, I for one am glad that you talked to him and that because of him you decided to tell me how you feel. I have been feeling the same as you have for weeks as well but I thought that you wanted nothing to do with me. I figured that you had moved on, especially after our argument earlier." Oliver admitted going for honesty.

Felicity felt her heart drop at the mention of their argument earlier, she felt truly awful about all of the things that she had said. She knew that she already apologized for everything that happened and he accepted the apology, but she felt like she needed to apologize again.

"I really am sorry for the things that I said, I just said things to make you angry and hurt you because I was scared.-" Felicity started to ramble but Oliver caught her before she started to really spiral

"Felicity, you already apologized and I already forgave you for what happened and what was said. You don't have to keep apologizing."

"I know, I just feel like I need to. I can see that you're still hurt by what I said and I just wish that I could take it all back." She really did feel awful about what was said but she also knew that this was the hormones talking. Recently she had been crying at almost anything and everything and she absolutely hated everything about it. Earlier today she started crying while at work because she couldn't find her favorite pen, Barry and Cisco looked at her like she needed to be committed to the loony bin.

Oliver had been living with Felicity long enough to know the cues of when she was about to start crying, now was one of those times and he still really didn't know how to handle it. He hated to see her cry especially over something that he couldn't control or help with, that at least made this situation a little bit easier.

"Hey, there's no need to cry. Things were said and they are forgiven I promise, I won't hold them over or head or anything like that. It's forgiven okay? Let's just try and move on from it." Oliver said as the first tears started to fall down Felicity's cheeks and he couldn't help but smile a little bit. He knew that she really was worried about the things that were said earlier but he also knew that it was more than likely the hormones talking.

Oliver kissed her forehead and brings her in for a hug that she welcomes just wanting to be in his arms, she missed being swallowed in his embrace when he would wrap his arms around her. She sniffled a few times before settling down, then she saw it, the smoke coming out of the oven.

Oliver had his back turned towards the kitchen so he hadn't noticed, both of them had completely forgotten that he was in the middle of cooking dinner when she had gotten home.

"Um...Oliver?" Felicity asks trying to pull away from the embrace to tell him about the state of their kitchen.

"Felicity really everything is forgotten, you don't have to-" Oliver started but Felicity cut him off.

"No. Oliver the chicken!" Felicity pulled away and pointed to their kitchen that was now enveloped in smoke making both of them start coughing as it started to waft into the hallway.

Oliver quickly turned and ran into the kitchen quickly opening up the windows as Felicity did the same in the living room hoping to create a draft to get the smoke out. She grabbed a magazine and tried to use it to get the smoke out faster, the more she breathed in the more she started coughing and her eyes started watering. She walked into the kitchen which was still completely enveloped in smoke, Oliver had taken the chicken out of the oven but the smoke was still coming off of it.

"I never thought that I would see the day that Oliver Queen would burn something." Felicity joked while laughing and also coughing from breathing in the smoke. Oliver suddenly came out of the smoke also coughing even more aggressively than she was, she knew that they shouldn't stay in the apartment for much longer. She knew how Oliver was and he was probably about to start freaking out about her breathing all of this in and how it's affecting the baby.

"I don't know what happened, everything was fine," Oliver said looking sad and Felicity chuckled which caused her to start coughing even harder. She saw the moment that Oliver became concerned for her and the baby's health.

"Felicity you really shouldn't be breathing in all of this smoke, it's not good for you or the baby. Come on, we are going to the hospital." Oliver says grabbing her hand as the smoke alarms start going off for the whole building. She looked back and noticed that the entire apartment was filled with smoke now as if this day wasn't eventful enough.

She lets him drag her to the front door and she quickly grabs her purse, coat, and shoes before walking out the door coughing along with Oliver. They head for the stairs still coughing from the amount of smoke that the two of them had inhaled.

By the time that they had gotten down the three flights of stairs, there was already a crowd gathering in the lobby. Felicity and Oliver looked around feeling slightly guilty for causing all of this but pretending that they were as clueless as everyone else.

Felicity looked up at Oliver and chuckled thinking about the last time that she tried to cook something. "You know, for how much you complain about my cooking, I have never set off the fire alarms for the entire building."

Oliver looks down at her with a playful glare on his face and sticks out his tongue at her. "I have half a mind to blame you for this. If you weren't distracting me I wouldn't have shut the door to the oven when the chicken was clearly ready."

Felicity shook her head and started to laugh but it instead turned into a cough and Oliver went from teasing to concerned in 0.2 seconds. She can see the worry clear across his face and she knows that she will do anything that he asks if it means that he didn't look so pale and worried.

She couldn't stop coughing and she was even starting to become worried herself. Oliver ushered her outside to get some fresh air and saw that a firetruck and ambulance were coming down the street towards their building.

"Just take a few deep breaths I'm sure that everything is okay," Oliver says rubbing her back trying to keep her calm while he is simultaneously freaking out. Felicity takes a few deep breaths and feels marginally better, her throat is still scratchy and raw from all the coughing but other than that she seems to be fine.

"Who would have thought that a little bit of smoke would have set off the fire alarms huh?" Felicity asked looking up at Oliver seeing that he seems to have some color back in his cheeks.

"I would have to say that it was more than just a little smoke. Today has definitely been a long interesting day to say the very least." Oliver says with a laugh and wrapping his arms around Felicity just wanting to have her close to him. Felicity relaxed into him, it felt amazing to be able to do this again and feel so safe in his arms, she wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes. She tried to ignore the burn in her throat and the need to start coughing, she didn't want to scare Oliver more than she needed to. She knew that he was already feeling guilty enough for forgetting about the chicken.

When she couldn't hold it in any longer she started coughing and couldn't stop for a solid minute. Oliver looked down at her with a scared look on his face.

"Will you please get checked out by a paramedic? It would put my mind at ease if you would, that cough does not sound." Oliver practically begged and she looked up at him and knew that she needed to get checked out. If she was being honest she was a little nervous herself about this cough and if the baby was affected at all by the smoke.

"Okay, I'll get checked out. Put both of our minds at ease." They were about to walk over to the medics when Dig came out the door looking frantic and stopped them before they could take more than a few steps.

"Hey, are you okay? I heard that the smoke was coming out of your apartment and got worried that you were hurt." Dig asked Felicity and it made her smile that she had such amazing people in her life that cared about her so much.

"Yeah I'm okay, I just have a pretty nasty cough but besides that everything is okay. Oliver wasn't paying attention and left our dinner in the oven and it burnt and started smoking."

Dig looked over at Oliver like he wanted to murder him for even the mere implication of hurting Felicity. Felicity chuckled and rested a hand on his arms to calm the man down, she knew that he was scared for her and didn't actually want to murder Oliver, she hoped.

"Take a breath Dig, Oliver didn't mean to and it was a complete accident," Felicity said and then had another coughing fit.

"Alright enough talking we are getting you checked out," Oliver says steering her away from Dig and giving him a small smile as they make their way to the ambulance. For the first time, she felt the baby really move, it wasn't just a flutter or anything. She couldn't explain it but she just knew that it was the baby and it suddenly made her feel like she wasn't alone. That she always had someone with her, it was a comforting thought as she and Oliver walked up to the ambulance.

"You need some assistance folks?"

"Hi, my girlfriend and I were in the apartment that caused all of this and I was wondering if you could check her out? Make sure everything is okay," Oliver asked the paramedics.

"Sure, what seems to be the problem, ma'am?" The female paramedic, whose nametag said her last name was Williams, asked Felicity as she stepped into the ambulance and handed her an oxygen mask.

"I inhaled a lot of smoke and can't seem to stop coughing, I am also four months pregnant and just want to make sure that everything is okay." Felicity sat down on one of the beds and started to cough again. The medic checked her out looking down her throat and listening to her lungs and heart all the while staying quiet. Felicity could tell that the longer that the medic took the more anxious Oliver became, she gave him a gentle smile trying to help him relax but she knew that until the medic said that she was all good that he was going to continue to freak out.

The medic took a seat on the bench facing Felicity with a smile on her face which made Felicity feel slightly better that nothing was seriously wrong. She was hoping that with a little rest and oxygen that she would be fine.

"I didn't hear anything too serious that I would be seriously worried but being that you're pregnant I would feel better saying just take a trip down to the ER just to be safe. Other than that you seem pretty healthy to me." The woman gave her a small smile.

"But nothing is wrong with the baby right?" Felicity asked through her oxygen mask, the longer she sat here the more nervous she became thinking about all the things that might happen to the baby and how she was a horrible mother for not getting out sooner.

"Not that I can tell but I don't have any ultrasound equipment. If the baby is moving around and you aren't cramping or bleeding then the baby should be fine but I can't one hundred percent say whether or not. For now, you can hang out in here and use the oxygen to calm down but like I said everything sounded good." The medic said and even though Felicity felt like she was being irrational she knew that she would feel better if she went to the ER and had them check her out.

"Alright, thank you," Felicity said as she watched her get out of the back of the ambulance. Oliver climbed in and took her place, she watched as he ran his eye over her to make sure that she was physically alright. She put her hand on his knee and he looked up to meet her eyes.

"I'm okay you heard what the medic said, we can go to the ER and get checked out just to be sure that everything is alright," Felicity said letting her fingers travel to the space between his brows. Whenever he was frustrated or nervous about something over the past month she noticed that he would wrinkle his brow. She smoothed it out without even really thinking about it and she saw the smile appear on his face.

"I just don't want anything to be wrong with either of you, I want you both to be healthy and safe. I would feel a lot better if we went to the hospital and got checked out there." Oliver admitted and she was relieved that she wasn't going to have to convince him to go. At least they were on the same page.

After a few minutes, they both hopped out of the back of the ambulance and answered some questions from the police and the fire department before finally making their way to the parking garage and getting in their car and going to the hospital.

The drive there was silent except for the radio that neither one of them was listening to, they didn't know what to say to each other. All that they did was hold hands and pray that everything was okay with their little munchkin.

Once they were at the hospital they were immediately put into a room because Oliver decided that name dropping was a good idea. Felicity felt incredibly bad that just because Oliver's parents donated an entire wing to this hospital, they were getting special treatment. Don't get her wrong she was grateful that she wasn't going to have to sit and wait for hours before being seen but she still didn't like it.

They were taken back into an exam room and told to wait there until the on-call OBGYN came down to do a quick exam. Felicity smiled at the kind nurse and hopped up onto the exam table noting that it was probably one of the last times that she will be able to easily do that again.

"I am really hoping that I don't have to get my blood drawn again, I am fine with every few weeks between appointments but not twice in one day I am not a fan," Felicity commented making Oliver laugh. He kissed the top of her head and ran a hand down her back hoping to calm her nerves.

"I'm sure that they will just do an ultrasound and a check-up and then send us on our way," Oliver said trying to keep his anxiety at bay for her knowing that most likely if he freaked out then so would she.

"We are those first-time parents right now. The ones that freak out over the tiniest things and go to the hospital because of it." Felicity said becoming even more anxious that she was over-reacting.

"Hey look at me," Oliver said stepping in front of her so that he can look her in the eye, he tilted her head up so that she couldn't escape his gaze. "So what? So what if we are those first-time parents that freak out over the littlest thing? We learn from this and then move on, there's a learning to curve to parenthood according to every parenting book or blog that I have read."

She nodded and knew that he was right, that there was a learning curve to this whole parenting thing and that no one was expecting them to get it right or be perfect. As long as they loved this kid that's all that mattered.

"Hey there mom and dad, I hear you were in a fire? Inhaled some smoke?" The female OBGYN asked, her doctor's coat read Dr. Robbins. She walked over to the stool sitting in the room in front of an ultrasound machine. Felicity watched her nervously hoping that the ultrasound would show that something was really wrong with her baby.

"Yeah, we should thought it was better to be safe than sorry," Felicity said watching as Dr. Robbins typed something on the computer before turning to them and smiling a bright smile.

"No harm in that, I'm just going to take your vitals really quick and then I'll have your lie back and we will get this show on the road." Dr. Robbins took her vitals and then had Felicity lie back.

The screen lit up with a picture of their baby and both Felicity and Oliver felt tremendously better just seeing their little munchkin. Dr. Robbins looked at the screen and was quiet for a few moments to make sure that everything was okay.

"Well, everything looks perfect, your baby girl looks great and healthy. I don't see anything to worry about, I am going to give you a prescription for an inhaler just in case you have any trouble breathing in the next week or so." Dr. Robbins said but neither one of them heard anything after hearing the words baby girl.

"It's a girl? We're having a girl?!" Felicity asks looking at Oliver and seeing the smile plastered across his face. Felicity starts to tear up as she starts to imagine their life together, A little girl running around with Oliver's dirty blonde hair and her spunky attitude. It was something she didn't know that she wanted until it was well within her reach.

"Oh my god! Wait I thought it was too early to tell," Oliver said looking at the doctor.

"It is a bit early to give a one hundred percent but I have been doing this for long enough to know. Congratulations guys." Dr. Robbins says giving them a huge smile as she hands Felicity a paper towel to wipe off her stomach. Dr. Robbins stood up giving them anther smile before she made her way out of the room.

Oliver looked at Felicity and couldn't help the tears that formed in his eyes, they were gonna have a baby girl. In a few months, they were going to have a little baby girl in their arms. Oliver never thought that he wanted kids, he always thought that they would cramp his style. But now, knowing that him and felicity were about to be parents to a little girl he couldn't imagine his life going any other way.

"A girl...a little girl. I hope that she has your blonde hair." Oliver comments as he moves a piece of her hair out of her face and she finishes getting all of the goo on her stomach and sits back up. She smiles at him and wipes away his tears, she watched him for a few minutes admiring the man sitting in front of her. She was about to have a baby with this man, this sweet, kind and beautiful man.

"I dye it actually, I have naturally black hair," Felicity says with a mischievous smile on her face. She gives him a wink and laughs as he tilts his head to the side as he looks at her like he's trying to imagine it.

"Come on, let's get back to the apartment and pack a bag and we can stay in a hotel for a night or two to let the apartment air out. I'm exhausted." Felicity said getting down from the table.

"I still can't believe that it's a girl, we're having a girl," Oliver says as they make their way out of the hospital and back to their car.

"Yeah, I can't believe it either. I'm really happy." Felicity and took his hand in hers as they walked through the parking lot to their car and Felicity looked up at him as he looked down at her.

"Me too, happier than I thought I ever could be," Oliver said and leaned down giving her a quick kiss. Something he didn't think that he was going to be able to do again.

Today had been full of ups and downs for both of them but it had ended with them learning that they were going to have a little girl together. That's all that they could really ask for.


End file.
